More than 7 in 10 parents of California public school students — and 65% of adults overall — oppose transgender athletes playing in girls' or women's sports, saying they should be required to compete on teams that match their biological sex, according to a new bipartisan Public Policy Institute of California survey.
The survey also found that 49% of Democrats and 71% of independents said that trans athletes should not be able to compete as the gender they identify with.
The survey comes weeks after the state legislature's Democrat supermajority voted to block a bill that would have required the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports, to adopt rules banning students who were born male from participating on a sports team for girls.
It also comes more than a month after California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the idea of boys playing on girls' teams "deeply unfair."
In a letter late last month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Newsom that California must comply with President Donald Trump's executive order banning biological males from competing in women's sports or risk federal funding for schools.
Trump on Feb. 5 signed the executive order "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports."
"Allowing participation in sex-separated activities based on 'gender identity' places schools at risk of Title IX violations and loss of federal funding," McMahon wrote to Newsom. "As governor, you have a duty to inform California school districts of this risk."
The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,591 California adults March 27-April 4. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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