On Monday, July 15, California became the first state in America to require educators in the public school system to keep it a secret if their children choose to identify as a different gender or sexuality. On Tuesday, the Chino Valley Unified School District, along with a coalition of angry parents, sued Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, stating that the law violates the constitutional rights of parents. The law is scheduled to take effect in January.
“School officials do not have the right to keep secrets from parents, but parents do have a constitutional right to know what their minor children are doing at school,” said Emily Rae, the attorney for the Chino Valley district, in a statement. Jonathan Keller of the California Family Council concurred, stating, “This bill undermines (parents’) fundamental role and places boys and girls in potential jeopardy. Moms and dads have both a constitutional and divine mandate to guide and protect their kids, and AB 1955 egregiously violates this sacred trust.”
A number of organizations have asked to intervene in the lawsuit in favor of parental notification, including the Family Policy Alliance, the Pacific Justice Institute, and the Goldwater Institute. As the Associated Press reported, last year, “24 Republican state attorneys general filed a brief to support a Chico, California, mother who claimed that school officials allowed her child to socially transition without her permission,” and 16 Democratic attorneys general filed a brief defending the decision.
In the pivotal cultural battle between LGBT activist groups and parents, the Democrats have sided with the LGBT movement.
One of those LGBT activists is the most notorious Democratic legislator in the state, a man aptly named Scott Wiener. Wiener is the legislator who suggested that Drag Queen Story Hour for kids be mandatory, fought to keep statutory rapists off the sex offenders’ registry, and championed legislation to reduce the crime of knowingly exposing a sexual partner to HIV from felony to misdemeanour status. In response to Elon Musk noting that California could begin taking trans-identifying kids from parents, Wiener commented, “Elon Musk is a textbook example of why kids shouldn’t be forced to come out to their parents.”
California Democrats brought forward AB 1955 in response to seven California school boards implementing policies requiring parental notification before school officials can formally change the gender or name of their children at school; six states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, also require parental notification. The state of Virginia has advised school boards to create parental notification policies but has not yet passed a law requiring them.
LGBT groups have demanded that lawmakers put a stop to parental notification.
“This critical legislation strengthens protections for LGBTQ+ youth against forced outing policies, provides resources for parents and families of LGBTQ+ students to support them as they have conversations on their terms, and creates critical safeguards to prevent retaliation against teachers and school staff who foster a safe and supportive school environment for all students,” Tony Hoang, executive director of LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality California, said in a statement. Other LGBT groups concurred.
The lawsuit is yet another example of the clash between long-recognized constitutional rights such as parental rights, and new, fictitious rights assert by the LGBT movement in their quest for cultural dominance — in this case, the “right to privacy” of “LGBT children.” California is an example of what happens when LGBT activists are put in charge of creating policy. First on the agenda? Separating children from their parents.
