The bill now returns to the Assembly to approve amendments before being sent to the governor.
California lawmakers voted June 13 to advance legislation to ban school districts from notifying parents about social gender transitions at school without the student’s permission.
The state Senate voted 29–8 to approve Assembly Bill 1955 and send it back to the Assembly for final approval of amendments.
Sen. Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), who presented the bill on behalf of its author, Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San Diego), and the 13-member California Legislative LBGTQ Caucus, said before the vote the bill would “put some guardrails” on the “forced outing” policies passed recently by some California school boards.
“We know some of those policies have not been able to go into effect. We know some of those school board members have since been recalled,” she said.
One such California school board member, Temecula Valley Unified School District Board President Joseph Komrosky, is set to be recalled after a June 4 special election in which 51 percent of voters supported his removal. The district currently requires school staff to notify parents if their children change their name, pronouns, or other such information in their school records.
The new bill codifies in law guidance from the California Department of Education that “schools must consult with a transgender student to determine who can or will be informed of the student’s transgender status, if anyone, including the student’s family.”
Ms. Eggman said the bill aims to return schools to the task of teaching children and to “provide a supportive environment where [students] can figure out who they are.”
“That is one of the major developmental tasks that every single one of us has to do—is to begin to separate from our family of origin as we go out into the world and find our people,” she said. “All this does basically is say [to] schools, it’s not your job to be the gender police. We don’t want those policies. We want everybody to be safe and affirm.”
By Brad Jones
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