California lawmakers reject bills to ban trans athletes' participation in girls sports

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers won't change state policies allowing transgender kids and teens to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identities amid heated nationwide debates over the participation of trans youth in athletics.

Democratic lawmakers on the state Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism rejected two proposals by Republican lawmakers on Tuesday after hours of impassioned debate and commentary.

One bill would have required the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports, to adopt rules banning students whose sex was assigned male at birth from participating on a girls school sports team. The other would have reversed a 2013 law allowing students to participate in sex-segregated school programs, including on sports teams, and use bathrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identity. It would have applied to K-12 and college students.

The hearing came a day after Transgender Day of Visibility, and weeks after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom angered his political allies when he suggested on his podcast it's unfair for transgender athletes to participate in girls sports.

Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward, the committee chair who leads the legislative LGBTQ+ caucus, said the bills were part of a broader attack on the rights of transgender youth. He said they could also be invasive to cisgender girls who might be asked to prove their sex.

“I don't think anybody should be gender policing women and girls,” Ward said.

But Republican Assemblymember Bill Essayli, who authored the bill to reverse the 2013 law, said the proposal was about fairness.

“Biology matters,” he said. “Sports are one of the places where that reality is most obvious.”

Taylor Starling, a student-athlete in Riverside who says a trans runner took her spot on her high school’s varsity cross country team, said a ban would help ensure female athletes are treated fairly.

“Why are girls being told that we must sit down and be quiet while boys unfairly get ahead of us in life?” she said.

But LGBTQ+ advocates and parents of transgender children urged lawmakers to support trans kids — in sports and beyond.

Cati Johnson, a parent of a transgender girl in middle school, said it was important to defend the rights and protections of trans kids, such as the ability to use a restroom that aligns with their gender identity.

“The facilities ban really sends the message that she is not welcome as her authentic self,” Johnson said of her daughter. “And that’s just not OK.”

There are more than 49,000 trans youth aged 13 to 17 in California, according to an estimate from the Williams Institute, a group at the UCLA School of Law that researches LGBTQ+ issues.

“While we know of a few high-profile stories of trans girls who play on teams, we are not seeing evidence that their participation is unfair or harmful,” said Elana Redfield, the group's federal policy director. “Mostly, these laws appear to be motivated by anti-transgender bias.”

At least 24 states have laws on the books barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain women’s or girls sports competitions. Judges have temporarily blocked bans in Arizona, Idaho and Utah. In New Hampshire and West Virginia, students who sued those states over bans were allowed to compete. At the federal level, President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month aimed at barring transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sports.

Some states have also imposed bans on gender-affirming care and required schools to share students’ gender identity with parents without the students’ consent.

Essayli and other proponents of the proposals referred multiple times to Newsom's comments. The governor later told The Los Angeles Times he had deliberated on the issue for years, and he stuck by his comments.

“I know that hurt a lot of people. But respectfully, I just disagree with those on the other side of this,” he said.

Newsom has not directly called for a reversal of existing state law and won't have to weigh in after the bills died.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent Newsom a letter last week, saying his remarks on his podcast caught her attention and requesting he clarify his stance.

“Take a stand on your convictions,” she wrote. “Be clear about the harms of gender confusion. Protect female spaces. Do not encourage children to seek permanent medical interventions to their sex. Inform parents.”

The U.S. Department of Education also announced an investigation last week into the state education department over a law banning school districts from requiring teachers and staff to notify parents if a student changes their gender identity at school.

Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna

Opponents take a selfie outside hearing to consider bills to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Yuri Avila)

Opponents hold signs while they wait in line outside hearing to consider bills to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Yuri Avila)

Supporters and opponents listen to discussion to consider bills to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Yuri Avila)

Assembly Member Kate Sanchez, R- Rancho Santa Margarita, presents a bill she authored during a hearing to consider bills to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Yuri Avila)

Assembly Member Christopher Ward, D-San Diego, presents arguments against bills to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Yuri Avila)

Republican Assembly Members James Gallagher, right, of Yuba City and Carl DeMaio, left, of Valley Center talk during a news conference after a hearing to consider bills to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Yuri Avila)

Assembly Member Bill Essayli, R-Corona presents bill he authored to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Yuri Avila)

Student athletes hold signs during a hearing to consider bills to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Yuri Avila)

FILE - Republican Assembly members Tom Lackey, of Palmdale, left, and Bill Essayli, of Riverside, huddle at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., July 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

POINTE À LA HACHE, La. (AP) — Oil company Chevron must pay at least $740 million to restore damage it caused to southeast Louisiana's coastal wetlands, a jury ruled on Friday following a landmark trial more than a decade in the making.

The case was the first of dozens of pending lawsuits to reach trial in Louisiana against the world’s leading oil companies for their role in accelerating land loss along the state’s rapidly disappearing coast. The verdict – which Chevron says it will appeal – could set a precedent leaving other oil and gas firms on the hook for billions of dollars in damages tied to land loss and environmental degradation.

Jurors found that energy giant Texaco, acquired by Chevron in 2001, had for decades violated Louisiana regulations governing coastal resources by failing to restore wetlands impacted by dredging canals, drilling wells and billions of gallons of wastewater dumped into the marsh.

The jury awarded $575 million to compensate for land loss, $161 million to compensate for contamination and $8.6 million for abandoned equipment — a total of $744.6 million. Including interest from when the lawsuit was filed in 2013, the amount earmarked for restoration exceeds $1.1 billion, according to attorneys for Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello, the firm behind the lawsuit.

The parish had asked for $2.6 billion in damages.

“No company is big enough to ignore the law, no company is big enough to walk away scot-free,” the plaintiff’s lead attorney John Carmouche told jurors during closing arguments.

A 1978 Louisiana coastal management law mandated that sites used by oil companies “be cleared, revegetated, detoxified, and otherwise restored as near as practicable to their original condition” after operations ended. Older operations sites that continued to be used were not exempt and companies were expected to apply for proper permits.

But the oil company did not obtain proper permits and failed to clean up its mess, leading to contamination from wastewater stored unsafely or dumped directly into the marsh, the lawsuit said.

The company also failed to follow known best practices for decades since it began operating in the area in the 1940s, expert witnesses for the plaintiff’s testified. The company “chose profits over the marsh" and allowed the environmental degradation caused by its operations to fester and spread, Carmouche said.

Chevron's lead trial attorney Mike Phillips said in a statement following the verdict that “Chevron is not the cause of the land loss occurring” in Plaquemines Parish and that the law does not apply to “conduct that occurred decades before the law was enacted.”

Phillips called the ruling “unjust” and said there were “numerous legal errors.”

The lawsuit against Chevron was filed in 2013 by Plaquemines Parish, a rural district in Louisiana straddling the final leg of the Mississippi River heading into the Gulf of Mexico, also referred to as the Gulf of America as declared by President Donald Trump.

Louisiana’s coastal parishes have lost more than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of land over the past century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which has also identified oil and gas infrastructure as a significant cause. The state could lose another 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) in the coming decades, its coastal protection agency has warned.

Thousands of miles of canals cut through the wetlands by oil companies weakens them and exacerbates the impacts of sea level rise. Industrial wastewater from oil production degrades the surrounding soil and vegetation. The torn up wetlands leave South Louisiana – home to some of the nation’s biggest ports and key energy sector infrastructure -- more vulnerable to flooding and destruction from extreme weather events like hurricanes.

Chevron’s lead attorney, Mike Phillips, said the company had operated lawfully and blamed land loss in Louisiana on other factors, namely the extensive levee system that blocks the Mississippi River from depositing land regenerating sediment — a widely acknowledged cause of coastal erosion.

The way to solve the land loss problem is “not suing oil companies, it’s reconnecting the Mississippi River with the delta,” Phillips said during closing arguments.

Yet the lawsuit held the company responsible for exacerbating and accelerating land loss in Louisiana, rather than being its sole cause.

Chevron also challenged the costly wetlands restoration project proposed by the parish, which involved removing large amounts of contaminated soil and filling in the swaths fragmented wetlands eroded over the past century. The company said the plan was impractical and designed to inflate the damages rather than lead to real world implementation.

Attorney Jimmy Faircloth, Jr., who represented the state of Louisiana, which has backed Plaquemines and other local governments in their lawsuits against oil companies, told jurors from the parish that Chevron was telling them their community was not worth preserving.

“Our communities are built on coast, our families raised on coast, our children go to school on coast,” Faircloth said. “The state of Louisiana will not surrender the coast, it’s for the good of the state that the coast be maintained.”

Carmouche, a well-connected attorney, and his firm have been responsible for bringing many of the lawsuits against oil companies in the state.

Louisiana’s economy has long been heavily dependent on the oil and gas industry and the industry holds significant political power. Even so, Louisiana’s staunchly pro-industry Gov. Jeff Landry has supported the lawsuits, including bringing the state on board during his tenure as Attorney General.

Oil companies have fought tooth and nail to quash the litigation, including unsuccessfully lobbying Louisiana’s Legislature to pass a law to invalidate the claims. Chevron and other firms also repeatedly tried to move the lawsuits into federal court where they believed they would find a more sympathetic audience.

But the heavy price Chevron is set to pay could hasten other firms to seek settlements in the dozens of other lawsuits across Louisiana. Plaquemines alone has 20 other cases pending against oil companies.

The state is running out of money to support its ambitious coastal restoration plans, which have been fueled by soon-expiring settlement funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and supporters of the litigation say payouts could provide a much-needed injection of funds.

Attorneys for the parish said they hope that big payout will prompt more oil companies to come to the table and engage in coastal restoration.

“We continue to fight to restore the coast,” said Don Carmouche, an attorney with the firm representing the parish and other local governments which have filed suit. “All the parishes want is for the companies to come together for reasonable restoration of the coast.”

FILE - Wetlands are seen from a helicopter on the Louisiana coast on July 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - This Tuesday, May 2, 2017, photo shows a Chevron sign at a gas station in Miami. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)