The California governor has appeared to moderate on some issues but still says schools shouldn’t inform parents of a child’s claim to be a different gender.
California was the first state to ban public school districts from disclosing to parents when a child claims to have a different gender identity. California Governor Gavin Newsom fully supported the measure.
Teachers should not be “gender police,” Newsom said at the time, and the “forced outing” of transgender students to parents would only harm children. Newsom and his attorney general, Rob Bonta, have gone after school districts that refuse to comply with the order, and California is actively fighting parents on this issue in court. State leadership has argued in court that parents have no constitutional right to know if their child chooses to change his or her pronouns, name, or identity at school, or to be informed of their child’s gender presentation — arguments Newsom has also supported.
Since the presidential election, in which parental rights was one issue that contributed to the Republican win, Newsom has done his best to adopt moderate stances on social issues. He’s admitted that it’s “unfair” for males to compete in female sports (even though state law allows students to participate in whichever sports team “aligns” with their chosen gender). The governor has abandoned a host of progressive talking points as they’ve become electorally unpopular: support for “gender-inclusive” sports policies, support for taxpayer-funded gender-transition surgeries, even the use of the term “Latinx.”
Parental rights, or rather, his disdain for them, seems to be the issue Newsom refuses to give up.
Donald Trump’s administration said last week that it would investigate California’s law banning parental notification, an issue Newsom discussed on Bill Maher’s show Friday night:
“The law was, a teacher would be fired if a teacher did not report or snitch on a kid talking about their gender identity,” Newsom said. “I just think that was wrong. I think teachers should teach. I don’t think they should be required to turn in kids.”
“We’re talking about their parents. The idea of a snitch and a parent to me doesn’t compute,” Maher responded.
Parents don’t want teachers to report to them every trivial act that happens on the schoolyard. Parents don’t need to know if Suzy has a crush on Johnny, but gender identity is a different matter; parents deserve to know if Johnny wants to enter the girls’ bathroom, if Suzy wants to stand at the men’s urinal, or if either want to alter their medical records to reflect a pronoun change. California’s measure requires teachers to lie to, or withhold information from, parents; it violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The issue is fundamentally about parents’ right to have access to, and be aware of, their child’s mental and physical state.