NEWSOM FLOUTS POLITICAL TRUISM: ‘DON’T FIGHT BATTLES YOU CAN’T WIN

 

CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2025 OR THEREAFTER

BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“NEWSOM FLOUTS POLITICAL TRUISM: ‘DON’T FIGHT BATTLES YOU CAN’T WIN’”

 

The California Department of Education estimates that fewer than 10 transgender high school athletes were among the 6 million students who participated in California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) sports last year.

 

For college level sports in California, transgender athletes were also in single digits during the last school year.

 

So why is the state putting more than $6 billion in federal education grants at risk by inviting the Trump administration to challenge a state law that federal Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi claims violates the rights of girl athletes, who she says are now forced to compete against biological males?

 

Of course, there is some question whether transgender girls fully retain their native male physical strength and physiques once they’ve undergone the hormonal and other treatment needed to render them trans.

 

None of this seems to matter much to anyone in this completely unnecessary battle.

 

The fight, in fact, seems to be a knee-jerk reaction by Gov. Gavin Newsom and his choice for state Attorney General, Rob Bonta, who have filed more than two dozen lawsuits against Trump administration actions, augmented by about a dozen amicus briefs filed to support lawsuits from other states.

 

But this one appears to put too much at risk for the sake of supposed rights granted by California to very few people.

 

The state was given 10 days in July to respond to a federal holding that allowing transgender athletes to compete in CIF events (only one competed in a championship competition last spring) violates Title IX, a 1972 federal law against sex-based discrimination in any education program that receives federal funding.

 

It's an open question where the discrimination may lie in this case: Is it discrimination to allow one or two athletes who may have some left-over male characteristics to compete against unadulterated native females? Or is the discrimination when they are prevented from competing in their preferred gender role?

 

Said Harmeet Dhillon, the San Francisco attorney and Republican National Committee member who long fought futile battles against her city’s strongly liberal establishment and is now a Trump assistant attorney general, “The Justice Department will not stand for policies that deprive girls of their hard-earned athletic trophies and ignore their safety on the field and in private spaces.”

 

So Justice gave California 10 days to change its policy, which is written into law here and in 21 other states.

 

Replied the state Department of Education at the deadline, “The CDE respectfully disagrees…and it will not sign the proposed resolution agreement.” Added the CIF, “The CIF concurs…(and) will not be signing…”

 

So another lawsuit is joined. Given the known proclivities of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority and its tendency to give Trump his way on most issues, it’s doubtful the state can win this case. Ultimately, its law allowing transgender young women to compete will almost certainly be struck down.

 

And then, the Trump administration says, it will try to exact revenge by taking $6 billion from education programs. Should the benefits of that grant money – actually taxes paid by Californians being returned for state use – be denied to many thousands of other students because of an almost certainly losing attempt to preserve a right used by only a very few?

 

Newsom and Bonta say it’s a matter of principle. Said one Newsom spokesperson, “No court has adopted the interpretation of Title IX advanced by the federal government, and neither the governor, nor they, get to wave a magic wand and override it.”

 

But chances are the current law won’t be law for too much longer.

 

Which brings the issue back to the old Kenny Rogers song “The Gambler,” which featured the signature line that “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.”

 

On this issue, it is time for Newsom and Bonta to fold ‘em. They don’t need to fight every battle, even relatively small ones with large financial and ideological aspects, in order for Newsom to play out his desired role as the Democrats’ chief anti-Trumper.

 

Or, as another political saying goes, “The art of politics is knowing when to stand and fight, and when to walk away and live to fight another day.”

 

 

 

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    Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net