CALIFORNIA MAY NOT BE A LOST CAUSE AFTER ALL!

OUR DUTY'S LETTER OF SUPPORT TO RETURN BIOLOGICAL REALITY TO CALIFORNIA

Our Duty, along with the Protect Kids California refashioned some its PKC ballot initiative language into a bill - AB844 - to get males out of intimate spaces and sports designed for females at all levels of education. The bombastic Assembly Member, Bill Essayli, with little need for cajoling, authored the bill.  We expected the Democrat-held assembly to kill the bill by refusing to set it for a hearing as it had done with the parental notification bill (AB1314). But, surprisingly, the bill was assigned a committee, albeit the wrong one - Arts, Entertainment, Sports & Tourism. (It should have been set to education because after all AB844 amends the Education Code). A companion bill AB89, that only addresses female sports in high school, by Assembly Member Katie Sanchez was also assigned the AEST committee. (No shade on Sanchez because incrementalism has its benefits, but I am impatient and the time is now to tackle it the entire problem, including bathrooms and locker rooms).

Those sneaky little Democrats set the hearing to AEST committee so that Chris Ward and Rick Zbur of the LGBTQ+ mafia could kill it without any vulnerable Democrats having to cast a vote. Ward and Zbur would take one for the team (pun intended), and then the other Democrats could claim innocence when they campaign as champions for women’s rights.

But Bill Essayli called their bluff, by asking for the entire assembly to vote on AB844. He was seconded by freshman Assembly Member Carl DeMaio. Predictably, all the Democrats voted “no” to hold the floor vote on AB844. All of the Republicans who were present voted to hold the vote, save for two who were then shamed into changing their votes. (We see you and won’t forget Assembly Members Juan Alanis and Greg Wallis of San Jose which is great because I can pop into your local office next week. I still have few pro-reality bills without authorship. You both can restore yourselves easily. I look forward to our meetings.)¹

So, now we know that the entire Democrat Assembly hates females and places males who masquerade as women above 51% of the population. Remember this folks in 2026.

Before the bills could be heard, Gov. Gavin Newsom, stepped right into the fray with his podcast interview with Charlie Kirk. Slick Newsom, the consummate politician, knowing that Trump won all of the swing states because of the transgender issue, decided to be a pretend moderate with his eye to the White House. He admitted that males in female sports is “an issue of fairness” and then in the next breath said that we need “grace and humility” without offering any solutions. What the hell does “grace and humility” mean? Newsom’s honest statement lead to the LBGTQ+ in California getting big mad. Newsom went on Bill Maher and made the same statements but Maher let Newsom sweet talk his way out of offering solutions and did not mention the impeding hearings on AB844 and AB89.

Then I, along with several detransitioners, parents and other advocates through Genspect-USA, had a meeting with Secretary of Department of Education, some of her staff and some staff from Health and Human Services for Detransitioner Awareness Day. We now had a direct line to the Federal government and we took full advantage. Women and parents sent me their evidence about males in female spaces, and I wrote up a memorandum of law on our discriminatory laws, emphasizing how California had been violating Federal law for more than a decade. I also sent the Feds AB844 which would be the easy solution. Miraculously, our call for help was heard and we received two gifts just in time for the bill hearing - two from the Department of Education - a letter from Secretary McMahon to Gov. Newsom encouraging him to pass AB844 with a warning that California risks losing federal funding and a letter from the DOE’s Student Privacy Policy Office announcing that it is launching an investigation due to California’s policy of deception to parents about their child’s gender identity and AB1955 violates FERPA. Shout out to California Justice Center and Julie Hamill, Esq. (and the mom who feed her all of the fruits of her labor) for paving the way for the DOE to open its investigation. Secret social transitions plans may become a thing of the past.

While the federal government pressures California lawmakers, we gear up for the April 1, 2025 hearing on the two bills, flying people to Sacramento, putting up our best witnesses, making our signage and posting everywhere about it. We want D.C. to know that we are doing our part and that not every Californian is a nut job who thinks girls should be exposed to male bodies in their spaces.

Here is the support letter that Our Duty submitted to the Committee that will decide if girls and women matter anymore.

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RE: ASSEMBLY BILL 844 — SUPPORT

Dear Chairman Ward:

I am the President of Our Duty-USA, a non-partisan, national group of parents, women and those who have been harmed by gender ideology.  Our membership includes gay men and lesbians, and most of our membership are former Democrats who have either changed parties or now vote Republican because of the Democrats’ ceaseless assault on children, girls, and women. 

On behalf of Our Duty and myself, we offer our support for Assembly Bill (AB) 844, a bill sponsored by Our Duty that mirrors our Protect Kids California ballot initiative.  We will continue to utilize every tool at our disposal, including engaging the federal government, to ensure that California returns dignity, safety and fairness to girls and women. Females’ rights are civil rights.  Sex is an immutable characteristic recognized at the highest echelons of law. Sex cannot be created, altered, or manufactured. No human has changed sex. There are profound physical differences between the male and female sexes. There is no additional sex beyond the binary of male and female. “Gender identity” does not alter a person’s sex.  

With the passage of AB844, females would be able to enter showers, bathrooms and locker rooms without fear that a male, who thinks that he is a woman, might be watching her undress or expose his male body to her.  It will assure parents that their children are safe from sharing a bedroom with someone of the opposite sex when they send them off to an overnight event with the school. AB844 will return California to a state where female athletes have the ability to obtain scholarships and have their years of arduous training pay off, without fear of a male moving onto their roster to steal their trophies or opportunities.  

This bill would enshrine into law that there are two sexes in the human race, as there always have been and always will be. It will relegate gender identity as secondary to biological reality. It might even restore the Democrats’ status as a party of science, of equality, of women’s rights, and of placing truth above all else.  While I would hope that all of these reasons would persuade the Democrats to “do the right thing” and require males who believe that they are females to use male facilities and play in male sports for the dignity of girls and women, I am not naïve.  Therefore, this letter of support lays out the consequences that will befall California should it continue its long march to silencing the marginalized, the forgotten, the ones with no name: women and girls. Human females. 

A. Federal Government and Lawsuits

On March 27, 2025, the Honorable Linda McMahon, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, sent Governor Newsom a letter encouraging California to pass AB844 and repeal Education Code 221.5(f).  She stated, “A great place to start protecting girls in California K-12 schools is to repeal Cal. Ed. Code 221.5(f) by calling on [the] legislature to pass AB844.”  Should California choose to ignore the federal government’s invitation, California educational institutions that receive any federal funding will face the dire consequence of having federal funding frozen and withheld for violating Title IX.  These are not mere hollow threats. 

The Attorney General Pam Bondi has warned that states that opt to ignore President Trump’s Executive Order 14168, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, are at risk. In early February of 2025, the Department of Education, announced that it was opening up investigations into San Jose State University, University of Pennsylvania and Maine.  Massachusetts is also being investigated.

University of Maine had its United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding ($30 million) frozen until it complied with the federal law and the new NCAA policy requiring participation in sports be based upon sex at birth.²  It complied.

Maine’s governor chose to ignore the Department of Health and Human Services, however, and continues to discriminate against females. The Office of Civil Rights and Department of Justice will now need to act against the Maine’s Department of Education, the Principal’s Association (the interscholastic entity for high schools) and Greely High School.  Greely is the school with the male pole vault jumper who switched to the female team to take first in the competition, as he moves towards the state championship. “Katie” was a mediocre jumper until he decided to compete as a girl.    

The federal government recently withheld $175 million from the University of Pennsylvania for its transgender policy in athletics.  San Jose State University (SJSU) must now defend against the investigation by the U.S. Department of Education and Office of Civil Rights, as well as Coach Melissa Batie-Smoose’s impending lawsuit. SJSU also faces claims by Beth Slusser, the volleyball player, deceived into sharing overnight accommodations with a male adult player who identified as a female.  

Of note in the courts, in January this year a district court vacated former President Biden’s changes to the Regulations of Title IX in the case entitled Tennessee v. Cardona, 24-cv-00072 at 73 (E.D. Ky. 2024) in which the court painstakingly laid out the history and purpose underlying the enactment of Title IX which was inarguably designed to protect against sex discrimination with an eye to protect females. The district court also noted that the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., 590 U.S. 644 (2020) was limited to its facts and only encompassed an analysis of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The case did “not purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms, or anything else of the kind.” Bostock, 590 U.S. at 681.  Therefore, the Title IX regulations of 2020 must be followed.

Title IX was enshrined into law in 1972 to protect against discrimination against sex, not gender identity.   Title IX states:

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Title IX is at its core a funding bill with contractual obligations.  Educational programs whether public or private cannot discriminate on the basis of sex, or the institution cannot receive federal funding.  It’s that simple.  While the federal government has not historically withheld funding, instead freezing or threatening to withhold funds, there is a new President in office whose mandate is to return to biological reality. He and his administration have clearly decided that it will utilize all of the power of the executive to effectuate what the majority of Americans want.

A New York Times poll in January of 2025 found that 79% of Americans are against males competing in female sports regardless of how they identify. This position crosses party lines -  67% of Democrats agree that sports should be based upon biological reality, as do 64% of independents.  Gallup in June of 2021 reported that 62% of Americans opposed trans-identifying males competing in female sports, and just two years later that figure climbed to 69%.  

These figures predictably increase year over year as people watch in horror as a female field hockey player shrieks in pain as she takes a ball to her teeth rocketed by a male playing as a girl on the opposing team, as a male punches women on his way to a gold medal, and a towering male barely has to jump to make indefensible baskets, surrounded by much smaller females.  

In California, a lawsuit has been filed by two female high school students from Martin Luther King High School, in which the girls challenge the school for violating their First Amendment rights when they were instructed to remove their shirts that stated “Save Girls Sports” and “It’s Common Sense XX XY”.  These plaintiffs also challenge Education Code 221.5(f), the law that placed gender identity above immutable sex, and that would be repealed by AB844.  See, SAVE GIRLS’ SPORTS, et al. v. Thurmond et al. No. 5:24-cv-02480SSS (SPx) (C.D. Cal. January 31, 2025). 

More lawsuits are expected, as the federal government is encouraging those of us who have been cataloging the harms perpetrated on the females of our state to file more lawsuits. We are hearing from parents that school board members are admitting in recorded sessions that they are knowingly violating Title IX, but will continue to accept the federal dollars until they are “forced” to reject the funding. The California Department of Education has been accepting, and continues to accept, federal funding despite  intentionally breaching its contractual obligation under Title IX.  This brazen behavior exposes school boards, the Department and the State of California up to qui tam lawsuits, under the False Claims Act, in which individual citizens act on behalf of the government and file suits for fraud. Successful claims are extremely lucrative for both the attorneys and the claimants. Notably, fraud is usually excluded from insurance.  Just a few awards in cases like these will wreck more havoc on the state’s budget, compounding the existing shortfalls already plaguing our state.

Meanwhile, the United States Supreme Court has accepted cases related to the dignity, safety and discrimination of females at educational facilities.  These cases will, undoubtedly, be decided in favor of biological reality undoubtedly, as the truth about the radical transgender agenda continues to be exposed.

B.  The Number and Effect of Males Invading Female Spaces 

The number of trans-identified youth and young adults has tripled over a five year period and continues to grow as this social contagion is stoked by laws, schools, the internet and institutions.

Williams Institute of Law at UCLA just announced in February of 2025 that the estimate of trans-identified high schoolers who are competing in sports is “as many as 122,000.” Williams Institute estimates that 1.3% of NCAA players are trans-identified.  There are approximately 540,000 NCAA players, so that calculates to 7,020 players³, with the vast majority being males who believe that they are female given the physical advantages of male bodies.  The website, “Hecheated” shows more than 1,700 males competing in high level athletics as females. The site creator admits that hundreds more have to be added as the numbers of gender-confused people continue to mount.  The United Nations reports close to 900 medals have been awarded to males who believe that they are women with more than 600 females missing out on first place, in 400 competitions in 29 different sports. In the year 2019-2020, some 41 boys played as females on girl’s field hockey teams.  A simple “google” search for any sport plus the word  “transgender” invariably results in multiple hits of trans-identified males playing as a female in a wide spectrum of competitions from billiards to roller derby to tennis to skiing. 

In California, the CIF responded to a public records request for the number of trans-identified athletes, and, as predicted, it could not respond because it keeps no such records. Schools hide the students’ gender identities, at all levels of play, to conceal the numbers.  We do know that Davis High School had three males competing in female categories: Dom “River” Salinas in cross-country; Cullen “Lily” Javers who set the freshman record for high jump; and “June” Watterson who became the state championship in the Cal-NV slalom race by a cool 17 seconds in 2023.  In the prior year, June had been competing as a male with an unimpressive record. He also competed as a male in cycling. That same year he competed as a female, demonstrating that June was comfortable competing in his sex category when it was convenient.

Also in California, a male, Aaron Lester, plays on the girls’ volleyball team in Half Moon Bay. His spike concussed an opposing team’s player who then had to sit out of the rest of her final season of high school volleyball. Lorelele Barrett is a male who plays as a female at the Buckley Academy in Los Angeles.  Henry Hanlon, a male basketball player for San Francisco Waldorf High School, identifies as a girl and towered over his competition recently as he scored 29 points of the total 59 points needed to decimate the competition who barely scored more points collectively than Mr. Hanlon alone. And then there is AB Hernandez, a male slated to become the State Champion in women’s track and field, who holds the state record for the high jump, tied for first in the long jump and is a shoo-in for the triple jump, having leapt 8 feet farther than the second place female. Many of these males play two sports as girls.  Henry, for example, played girls’ basketball and volleyball, and was involved in girls’ soccer. 

Every male that takes a female’s position on a team harms hundreds of other school athletes.  He harms the females who did not make the team.  He harms his female teammates by placing them in harm’s way in practice.  He harms their mental health by signaling to the females that they do not matter and must make way for a male.  He harms the coaches who are forced into silence and rejection of biological reality.  He harms the females who lose scholarships to him, and lose playing time and self-esteem as they languish on the bench.  He harms every female who is forced to compete against him.  He harms every female who wants to become an athlete. He harms every student at his educational institution, because that school is at risk of losing much needed federal dollars.  And, he harms himself, because he is setting himself up for a lifelong impossible quest to become a female.  He also harms his body and future should he engage in any form of medicalization.  Overall, any policy to permit gender identity to replace biological sex, harms everyone.  Placing gender identity above sex only serves to provide fleeting benefits to the male only each time he plunders the females’ podium spots, trophies and winnings.  

School bathrooms are the most dangerous places in schools, and females are the most vulnerable to assaults. Allowing males to choose where they dress, shower, and use the toilet requires no statistics to demonstrate the danger and discomfort it creates for females.Reports across the country prove that males, whether pretending to be trans-identified or those who believe that they are females, are causing harm to females.  In New Mexico, a 12-year-old girl was raped at school by a trans-identified male.  In Virginia, a trans-identified male, raped and sexually assaulted two different females.  At Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, a trans-identified male got into a physical brawl with females in the girl’s locker room after he exposed his genitals to the girls.  Miquel “Michelle” Martinez, a male who identifies as a female, is accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old female in a bathroom.  A 15-year-old girl was severely beaten in a school bathroom by a male student who believes he is a girl.  Sean Ojeda, a male who believes that he is a woman, is accused of sexually assaulting a young female in a Walmart bathroom.  And of course, encouraging females who believe that they are males to use male bathrooms also place females in danger as in the case of S. Blair, whose school instructed her to use the boy’s bathroom where she was assaulted⁴.  The sole reason for sex-separated spaces is to protect females — to pretend that females face no danger from males invading these intimate settings is to deny biology and history.  

C.   California Risks losing Billions in Federal Funding

California K-12 stands to lose close to $8 billion dollars from the federal government, or an estimated 6% of its funding.  Other reports place this figure closer to 13.9%.  The California Budget and Policy Center reports that $7.9 billion in federal dollars flows to K-12 education in California (2025-2026).  With California’s budgetary woes, the constantly decreasing enrollment numbers from parents disenrolling their children from California’s failing K-12 schools and indoctrination factories, and mass exodus from California, it cannot afford to lose one more dollar. 

In post-secondary institutions, the risks are even higher. The USDA has not yet started withholding funding at the universities and colleges in California, but it will.  California receives $7.3 billion for higher education for community colleges and state schools.  This figure does not include the billions of dollars in federal government grants for research and development that can also be withheld from both public and private institutions. Three California institutions are in the top ten list for most federal funding. Stanford received approximately $15 billion in annual funding, the University of California at San Diego received $1.54 billion and the University of California at San Francisco received $686 million. 

D. Unfair, Unsafe and Unacceptable

We agree with Governor Newsom that it is “deeply unfair” for males to compete as females.  The “grace and humility” that the Governor spoke of must be afforded not to males, but to the hundreds of thousands of females who can no longer safely compete in sports, use a bathroom or locker room, or be comfortable and protected in a school-related overnight trip. 

Females’ rights cannot be cast aside for males who believe that they are female.  Females deserve dignity and safety.  

We urge a “yes” vote to return biological reality to California.  

Respectfully,

Erin Friday, Esq.

President of Our Duty-USA

cc:  Asm. Tom Lackey (via Taylor.bartucca@asm.ca.gov)

Asm. Tina McKinnor (via Terry.schanz@asm.ca.gov)                    

Asm. Liz Ortega (via Stephanie.gerstleesparza@asm.ca.gov)

Asm. Sade Elhawary (via Sean.porter@asm.ca.gov)                     

Asm. Jeff Gonzales (via Ashley.yanez@asm.ca.gov)                         

Asm. Rick Zbur  (via Salina.valencia@asm.ca.gov)                      

Asm. Sharon Quirk-Silva  (via Dawn.adler@asm.ca.gov)                           

Asm. Avelino Valencia (via Nathaly.teran@asm.ca.gov)     

Asm. Bill Essayli (via Dylan.davis@asm.ca.gov)     

Asm. Kate Sanchez (via Griffin.bovee@asm.ca.gov)

 

1. California Senator Shannon Grove just revised one of her “hold a spot bills”, SB622, that would repeal Ed. Code 221.5(f) and make participation in K-12 activities and programs, including sports to be based upon sex at birth. The bill is stronger that AB89 in that it uses the phrase “sex at birth” instead of “sex assigned at birth” and it covers more than sports, but it leaves locker rooms, bathrooms and overnights available to males who identify as females and excludes high education. Females regardless of age need sex segregated spaces. Perhaps, Sen. Grove will amend her bill. So, now the California Senators are going to have to make their positions known too.

2. The NCAA updated policy still violated Title IX and will likely be targeted again by the Federal Government for the obvious loopholes in its revised policy. The continued gamesmanship designed to replace females with males with identity issues will not stand. 

3. Original letter had 550,000 NCAA athletes, but there are 540,000.

4. See Blair v. Appomattox County School Board, No. 6:23-cv-00047-NKM-CKM (W.D. Va. June 25, 2024)