California Governor Gavin Newsom recently struggled to say whether an eight-year-old was too young to undergo transgender procedures.

Newsom’s comments came during a conversation with podcaster Shawn Ryan, the governor’s latest appearance seemingly designed to make him seem more moderate in advance of a likely presidential bid in 2028.

But Newsom, who once said that California was a beacon of parental rights, may want to take a closer look at what his fellow Democrats are doing in the California Assembly.

Earlier this month, lawmakers advanced Assembly Bill 1084, which permits a court-appointed lawyer to assist children in changing the name and sex designation on their birth certificates and obtaining a new birth certificate that can designate them as “non-binary.” If the bill passes, court-appointed lawyers or guardians will be empowered to force these changes even if parents have retained custody of the child in question.

The bill essentially places children in positions of power. All that a child needs to do is make a claim of abuse, whether substantiated or not, against his parents, and he will be assigned an attorney who has been trained to accept a child’s gender identity pronouncement at face value.

Authored by Assemblyman Rick Zbur — who compared people fighting to protect women’s sports to Nazis — the bill is the latest brazen assault on parental rights, another attempt by leftists to replace parents with government agents.

The bill stipulates that, as long as a court rules it “is likely” that the child will remain a ward of the state until they turn 18, court-appointed lawyers have the authority to change the child’s sex and name, as well as their birth certificate. This grants parental rights to third parties, essentially stripping parents of legal control of their child.

In other words, the bill allows a stranger to enable someone else’s child’s desire to “socially transition,” a mental health treatment that is not a neutral act. Children affirmed in their transgender identity are more likely to continue rejecting their sexed bodies if they are confirmed in their delusion.

Parents can contest the petition, but the bill states that a challenge “based solely on concerns  that the proposed change is not the petitioner’s actual gender identity or gender assigned at birth shall not constitute good cause.” Simply, a parent who believes in biological reality and does not believe that the child he raised is the sex that he was at birth cannot contest the name and sex change on his birth certificate.

This bill is unconstitutional, a direct violation of the fundamental right of parents to raise their children in accordance with their beliefs, a right recently affirmed by the Supreme Court in its opinion in Mahmoud v. Taylor. A hundred years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Pierce v. The Society of Sisters that “The child is not the mere creature of the State.” The bill is also a violation of the First Amendment, dismissing any parent’s viewpoint that sex is binary and immutable.

Zbur designated the legislation an “urgency bill,” meaning that it will take effect immediately if the governor signs it.

Should Newsom sign the bill, it will render official records like birth certificates completely unreliable, as anyone in the state of California can petition with little to no opposition that their sex is whatever they claim it to be. This is one of many bills that the California Democrats are advancing that are designed to “Trump-proof” California.

The Democrat-controlled legislature is likely to pass the bill, which means it will likely land on Newsom’s desk soon. When it does, we’ll see if Newsom is really the pro-parent moderate he claims to be, or if California parents only have rights as long as they believe that their children can change sex.

Erin Friday leads Our Duty, an organization that advocates for parents with gender-confused children.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.