President Donald Trump has just been issued two legal blows in California over his anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ruled in San Francisco that the president cannot legally withhold funding to programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
And California Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta has launched a pre-enforcement suit against the Trump administration’s attempt to ban transgender children from playing on sports teams that don’t align with the gender assigned at birth.
The Justice Department has been contacted for comment via email.
Evan Vucci, File/AP Photo
Why It Matters
One of the president’s first acts in office was to attempt to pull funding from programs that receive government funding and may engage in promoting “DEI.” This has been challenged by many states, which argue that government funding decisions are within Congress’ purview, not the President’s.
The Trump administration has also attempted to eradicate transgender people from public life by passing an executive order on needing to have their gender assigned at birth on their passports and firing transgender people from the military. This California lawsuit represents a legal pushback on behalf of transgender children.
What To Know
The lawsuit against Trump’s executive order regarding DEI and public funds states that the president cannot remove funds without the consent of Congress.
One of the plaintiffs in the case against funding loss is the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. This organization was told by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that it would lose its funding as it promotes “DEI” and/or “gender ideology.”
Funding for the program comes from a five-year grant given in 2023, which the judge determined cannot be unilaterally removed by the president.
The second lawsuit has also been filed in San Francisco regarding the Trump administration’s executive order over funding to be halted to schools that allow transgender children to participate on sports teams that do not align with their gender at birth.
California is arguing in this case that removing a transgender child’s ability to participate in school sports in alignment with their gender identity violates their equal protection under the law and would force California schools to violate anti-discrimination laws.
The lawsuit states: “Allowing athletic participation consistent with students’ gender identity is substantially related to the important government interests of affording all students the benefits of an inclusive school environment, including participation in school sports, and preventing the serious harms that transgender students would suffer from a discriminatory, exclusionary policy.”
Conversely, the Justice Department (DOJ) has said that allowing transgender children to participate in sports according to their gender identity violates the equal protection rights of cisgender children.
Actress Jess Elgene, author of Less of a Man spoke with Newsweek about the Trump administration’s impact on transgender people in the U.S., saying: “It has definitely caused a certain amount of paranoia and just discomfort with the fact that I am trans and that I’ve been outspoken about my trans identity on stage.
“It feels like I followed all the rules. I waited until I was well into my adult years, remained open about my identity, and put myself in a financially independent situation worthy of some respect – I’m an upright, taxpaying citizen! And yet, there is so much vitriol and determined confusion about what it means for me to simply move through life. I’m constantly battling between doom scrolling on social media because I need to stay informed and going completely off the grid because everything on the internet suggests I flee the country ASAP.”
Elgene added: “A huge talking point for folks tends to be what a “small portion of the population” trans people are, and I don’t think that’s as compelling a point as some people might think.
“I think minimizing the amount of trans people in the world aids in making it feel like people won’t be missing much if we are ‘eradicated’ from public life. I grew up in a deeply conservative town in Texas and still found myself as a trans girl when I was a young child. We are everywhere.”
Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo
What People Are Saying
Attorney General Bonta said in a press release: “The President and his Administration are demanding that California school districts break the law and violate the Constitution – or face legal retaliation. They’re demanding that our schools discriminate against the students in their care and deny their constitutionally protected rights.
“As we’ve proven time and again in court, just because the President disagrees with a law, that doesn’t make it any less of one. As California’s chief legal officer, I’ll always fight to uphold and defend the laws of our state, especially those that protect and ensure the civil rights of the most vulnerable among us.”
President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism: “Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women…Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.”
Actress and transgender advocate Jess Elgene told Newsweek: “I would encourage folks to consider why this has been made into such an issue. It’s clear this is a slam dunk among certain vulnerable demographics of people who are susceptible to having marginalized groups vilified for them, and that’s a disservice to those people…it’s a complete disservice to them to blame every way in which this administration fails them on some hypothetical transgender athletes across the country.”
What Happens Next
Although the plaintiffs won their case in San Francisco, their decision will likely be appealed to a higher court. This is one of many cases against the Trump administration that could find itself in the Supreme Court.
The second case in San Francisco is asking for “declaratory and injunctive relief” when it comes to allowing the full participation of transgender children in sports.
