The White House invited Atascadero Unified School District board member Rebekah Koznek to an executive order signing ceremony on March 31 because she’s named in a 2024 complaint filed by Moms for Liberty and Young America’s Foundation to stop changes to Title IX ordered by President Joe Biden.
President Donald Trump’s order was aimed at trans student athletes and Biden’s Title IX changes.
“This was specifically for moms and their daughters who play sports to attend,” Koznek said via email. “There were also other organizations there who have been speaking out against this, along with female athletes who have been directly affected by CIF [California Interscholastic Federation] and colleges who have rules in conflict with the current [executive order].”
The Biden administration took steps to expand Title IX—the 1972 law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs that enjoy federal financial assistance—to define “sex” as a person’s self-assessed gender identity.
Since Trump took office on Jan. 20, he’s issued executive orders against trans people like “keeping men out of women’s sports” and “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
Koznek received her invitation from the administration in February.
“Today is a historic day as I get to represent parents across the nation witness, in person, President Trump sign an executive order protecting women and girls from boys competing in their sports,” Koznek wrote in a Feb. 5 Facebook caption accompanying an image of her White House invitation card. “This is a victory for fairness, common sense, and the future of women’s athletics.”
The vice chair of the San Luis Obispo County Moms for Liberty chapter appears in the lawsuit as an example of a Moms for Liberty member whose children are enrolled in schools that receive federal funding and are subject to Title IX regulations.
The complaint alleged that a transgender student using the girl’s locker room in the 2023-24 school year “twerked in the faces” of other girls and made them feel uncomfortable. It also noted that Koznek’s daughter—referred to by the initials E.K.—is on the autism spectrum and has speech and developmental limitations.
“As a result of E.K.’s disabilities, the presence of a biological male sharing a girls’ bathroom or locker room with E.K. would create great confusion for E.K.,” the complaint said. “E.K. is unable to process such a situation and is unable to modify her use of pronouns to conform to the requirement of the Final Rule.”
The “Final Rule” refers to the investigation conducted by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to address complaints of sex discrimination and discrimination based on gender identity.
Koznek told New Times she only received positive feedback on her visit to Washington, D.C. She didn’t respond to questions on the lawsuit and the alleged locker room incident.
Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming; Female Athletes United; and a mom on behalf of her minor joined Moms for Liberty in the lawsuit against the Department of Education, former Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, the Department of Justice, and former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
On Jan. 10, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves struck down Biden’s Title IX protections. Now in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, the case is temporarily discontinued and scheduled for oral argument in September.
Douglas Heumann, an attorney and chair of Central Coast Coalition for Inclusive Schools, said that Moms for Liberty’s case hinges on fear of retribution.
“I’m sorry, too bad you’re uncomfortable. What do you think trans students are?” he said. “It hasn’t happened, and it’s not like it’s going to damage them for life if they’re afraid that they’re going to have retribution.”
Coalition members have attended school district meetings in SLO County as debates around trans students in locker rooms and gendered sports categories take center stage. Heumann wrote a letter to six school districts criticizing a petition circulated by a group of parents that urged board members to align district policy around trans students with Trump’s executive orders.
After weeks of heated sessions and a rally, the Lucia Mar Unified School District formally discussed a community-proposed resolution called “Supporting Title IX and Fairness in Girls’ Interscholastic Sports” at its May 20 meeting. The board voted 5-2 to not agendize the resolution, with board members Mike Fuller and Eilene Pham supporting.
Schools aren’t the only entities impacted by the Trump administration’s gender identity policies. For Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, not complying with the president’s orders could result in loss of funding for its Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program.
In 2023, the chapter received a five-year $3.9 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to foster the agency’s evidence-based TPP program. It’s meant to help 2,900 people on the Central Coast, focusing on Latino and LGBTQ-plus youth and their families, and improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes, promote positive youth development and empowerment, and advance health equity and inclusivity, according to Planned Parenthood California Central Coast.
But on March 31, Planned Parenthood received new requirements from HHS—now headed by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Recipients of Tier 1 grants, which make up 75 percent of TPP programs across the country, should align with Trump’s executive orders as part of a noncompetitive continuation award application that was due April 15.
“The guidance seeks to insert ideological preferences into evidence-based programs previously approved by HHS and conflicts outright with the very purpose of the TPP program—leaving the future of the program uncertain,” Central Coast Planned Parenthood spokesperson Luz Reyes-Martin said.
On May 1, the chapter joined the New York; Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky; Heartland; and Mar Monte divisions of Planned Parenthood in a lawsuit against the department and Secretary Kennedy Jr.
Reyes-Martin added that by law, Tier 1 grants create medically accurate and age-appropriate programs to prevent unintended teen pregnancy and STIs. According to the complaint, the federal government offered no information on the program changes needed to make them align with the executive orders. The Central Coast chapter, under protest, expanded the age ranges of its focus population.
Not complying could mean a loss of almost $2.4 million in anticipated funding over the next three years, subsequently shuttering sexual and reproductive health education programs for young people and their families.
The funding future became murkier on May 29 when House Republicans voted to defund Planned Parenthood by passing a budget reconciliation bill. It bans Medicaid reimbursement for 10 years to nonprofit health care providers serving underserved communities if they offer reproductive and family planning services; abortions in cases other than of rape, incest, or a life-threatening condition for the woman; and/or received more than $1 million in Medicaid payments last fiscal year.
Reyes-Martin said the chapter submitted the award application in April but hasn’t heard back from the federal department yet. Δ
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jun 12-22, 2025.
I’d like to suggest an end point to this controversy. Let’s presume the CIF sets up rules allowing boys dressed as girls to participate in women’s sports. From the publication of those rules it is unlikely that girls will be recruited for “women’s” teams, as any coach worth his salt wants to win, and if a coach can recruit a man (dressed as a girl), he’ll get a stronger player.
This isn’t intended to be controversial, it’s just how the world works. Those on the other side of this debate appear not to have a very clear idea of the long term consequences of this sillyness.