CalMatters: New California bill would block trans females from playing in girls’ sports

January 15. 2025

ERA’s Kel O’Hara is featured in a CalMatters article about a new bill introduced in California targeting trans girls who play sports.

“Kel O’Hara, an attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, a San Francisco-based gender justice organization, said more than half the states have passed restrictions on transgender students’ participation in sports. Those bills target ‘a problem that doesn’t exist,’ they said.

‘It’s a dog whistle from our perspective,’ O’Hara said. ‘There’s no evidence that trans students, particularly trans girls, are dominating girls’ sports.”

O’Hara disputed that transgender girls outperform their teammates. They said that benefits of high school sports extend beyond athletic competition, so trans girls who are banned from teams also lose opportunities to develop teamwork, leadership skills and a sense of community.

‘These bills try to convince queer and trans young people that they don’t belong and they’re not safe,’ they said. ‘They want students to give up hope and go home.’

O’Hara argued that protecting female athletes doesn’t have to come at the expense of transgender girls.

‘Why does protecting some students have to mean discriminating against others?’ they asked. ‘Why are we approaching civil rights laws as a zero-sum game?’”

Read the full article.