The California state legislature is considering a new bill that would prevent schools from notifying parents if their children decide to change genders.
The new bill, AB 1955, is backed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who was booted for disorderly conduct from a school board meeting last year in Chino Valley, California, where the board approved a policy requiring schools to notify parents if children wanted to change genders, overriding Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policy for the State of California as a whole.`
The state sued the district over the state’s policy requiring, which was then blocked by U.S. Judge Roger Benitez, an appointee of President George W. Bush. (Newsom later launched into a blistering attack on Benitez over gun control.)
California Democrats are now trying to codify Newsom’s policy into law. The relevant text of AB 1955 reads:
This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law, as provided. The bill would prohibit employees or contractors of those educational entities from being required to make such a disclosure unless otherwise required by law, as provided. The bill would prohibit employees or contractors of school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or the state special schools, or members of the governing boards or bodies of those educational entities, from retaliating or taking adverse action against an employee on the basis that the employee supported a pupil in the exercise of specified rights, work activities, or providing certain instruction, as provided.
Thurmond hailed the bill last week, saying it would prevent the forced “outing” of transgender students: “When and how a person comes out is a conversation that should be reserved for a student and a parent, not arbitrarily forced on unsuspecting youth by a school administration.”
Newsom has also defended his school’s policy as an attempt to prevent “outing” students, whom he claims would be bullied if their new gender identity were known to peers.
Asked last year by Breitbart News to defend his policy, Newsom could not explain why parents should not be notified:
Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart NewsNewsom has clashed with local school districts over a variety of policies, including curriculum and gender policy.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
