Last Thursday, AB 1955, a bill that would forbid schools and teachers from telling parents if their children are using new pronouns, passed easily in the California State Senate with 29 Democrats voting in favor and a meager eight Republicans voting against. Three senators abstained.
Authored by Senator Chris Ward (D-San Diego) in conjunction with the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, the bill is a response to more-conservative areas of California that have passed policies requiring teachers to notify parents should their child begin to “identify” as transgender or begin to use opposite-sex pronouns.
The bill, also known as the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act), will next be voted on in California’s Assembly before heading to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.
“Teachers should not be the gender police and violate the trust and safety of the students in their classrooms,” Ward said. “Parents should be talking to their children, and the decision for a student to come out to their family members should be on their own terms. The SAFETY Act simply ensures that conversations about gender identity and sexuality happen at home without interference from others outside of the family unit.”
One opponent of the new bill called it “evil.”
“In the nearly 12 years that I have been in the State Assembly, I have never seen an effort to damage the relationship between children and their parents like this one,” said Fresno Republican Jim Patterson, who argued that the bill was nothing less than a “government-imposed wall” between children and parents.
“The state does not own our children. They have no business getting between parents and children, especially on something as potentially damaging as this,” Patterson added.
Others agreed that the bill was highly intrusive and overstepped the government’s role in the rearing of children.
“Parents must be involved. That should be the default because who more than anyone knows what’s best for their kids? Their parents,” said Republican Minority Leader James Gallagher. “This all started with the state of California policy out of the Department of Education, and that’s what we’ve been fighting back against. That’s why we need to stop this legislation from moving forward.”
Politicians in California’s LGBT community have even claimed ownership of gender-confused children.
“We are always there for these kids. These are our kids,” said Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener at a San Francisco Pride event earlier this month. “And we need to make sure that we are lifting them up and giving them a path to success.”
California Democrats have said that AB 1955 would prevent “forced outing” of children to their parents.
“School campuses should be safe places for students to learn and grow as their authentic selves. The SAFETY Act is a critical piece of legislation that seeks to protect everyone on school campuses, especially LGBTQ+ students,” said Senator Susan Eggman, a Democrat. “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.”
But accusations of “forced outings” are a lie because “there are no school board policies that force the outing of students,” according to the California Family Council (CFC), who strongly opposes the bill.
“This bill represents an unprecedented overreach by the government into the sacred bond between parents and their children,” said CFC Vice President Greg Burt. “Parents have a God-given responsibility to guide and protect their children, especially during times of confusion and vulnerability. AB 1955 not only undermines this fundamental right but also endangers the well-being of our children by isolating them from the very people who love and care for them the most. We must stand firm in defending parental rights and ensuring that families, not the government, are at the center of raising our children.”
The battle over AB 1955 is ground zero in the culture war. In California, the schools believe that they must protect children from their parents. School systems wish to assist children in keeping secrets from their parents. Unfortunately in the Golden State, LGBT interests may have the political clout to make that profound evil happen.
