The board of a California high school district voted 3-2 this week for a resolution defining girls’ sports as exclusively for cisgender girls, a small but loud protest from the conservative center of the Golden State in the roiling debate over trans-student athletes.

The resolution, adopted by the Kern High School District (KHSD) in California’s Central Valley, does not carry the force of law or change district-level policy.

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Fifteen of nearly 1000 school districts in the state have adopted similar resolutions.

KHSD trustee Derek Tisinger, who introduced the motion, said it was intended to send a message to Sacramento and Washington.

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“It’s the community. An idea of what this governing board supports going forward and hopefully forces our federal and state governments to listen to us and do what we think is right,” he told KGET News.

The board meeting, which brought a small group of concerned parents and community members opposed to trans athletes in girls’ sports, followed the recent forfeiture of a girls’ volleyball game by Bakersfield Christian High School against a local public high school with a trans student-athlete on its team.

Pastor Angelo Frashier said he supported the Christian school’s decision and the KHSD resolution.

“We are here to stand up for Title IX. We don’t believe that boys should be in women’s sports,” he said, misgendering trans women. “This is about the fairness of sports. Men should not be playing with women and women should not be playing with men.”

The Kern County Board of Education unanimously passed a similar motion in August.

The spate of non-binding resolutions conflict with policies at the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the governing body for California high school sports. Both allow trans student-athletes to participate in girls’ and boys’ sports in the state.

Following an executive order in February, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into California’s trans-affirming policies. It found they likely violate federal law.

CIF rejected the president’s order to ban trans-student-athletes.

In response, the Justice Department filed suit against California over a law allowing transgender students to join teams matching their gender identity, claiming it violates Title IX protections. That suit is making its way through the courts.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has taken a hands-off approach to the controversy since agreeing on his podcast with the late conservative influencer Charlie Kirk in March that trans student-athletes competing with cisgender girls is “unfair.”

Neither the California Department of Education nor the California Interscholastic Federation is under the governor’s direct control.

The Kern County resolution is a copycat of another introduced and passed earlier this year in conservative Chino Valley by school board president Sonja Shaw.

“Boys are boys. Girls are girls. God made them beautiful just the way they are,” Shaw said at the time. “It’s time to put fairness, truth, and common sense back into education.”  

The two trustees who voted against the resolution said they’d prefer the school district keep a low profile as the debate over trans student-athletes rages on.

David Manriquez said the board should avoid taking actions that might “put a target on ourselves for the federal government to come take a look at what we are doing here and how we are doing it.”  

“I’m not here to make a political statement one way or the other,” he said.

Trustee Steven Rodrigue agreed, saying the district shouldn’t “involve ourselves in a political argument.”  

It was left to community members to speak up for the trans students at issue.

“You’re targeting kids who are already vulnerable,” Catalina Maldonado told board members. “This does not promote safety or inclusion.”

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