California Bill Will Stop Schools And Teachers From Outing Students To Their Bigot Parents
Nice time!
Of all the truly, truly grotesque developments in the anti-LGBTQ+ hysteria of recent years, some of the most abjectly cruel are the laws requiring schools and teachers to out kids to their parents. According to an analysis by PEN America, these and other educational intimidation policies have exploded in popularity over the last four years and have been introduced or passed in all but four states.
It’s hard to fathom how or why anyone could have so much hate in their heart that they would want to put kids in danger of being thrown out of their homes, hurt or even killed by their parents — or even why they would want to deprive a child of the agency to come out on their own terms.
That is why California Assemblymember Chris Ward has introduced a bill that would not only bar districts from enacting rules forcing teachers and administrators to out kids to their parents without the child’s consent, it would keep those teachers and administrators from deciding to do so on their own accord as well — unless the child’s safety is at risk.
Assembly Bill 1955 will also keep judges from blocking policies meant to protect student privacy in this regard, as one San Diego judge did last year.
In that case, two teachers had sued because Escondido Union School District’s policy barred them from telling parents if students were or might be transgender or gender-nonconforming.
The two teachers, who identified as Catholic and as Christian respectively, argued it violated their First Amendment rights.
The judge, Roger Benitez, also said in issuing his temporary injunction that the policy violates parents’ Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide and make health care decisions for their children.
You might not think that this would be an issue in California, but since July of 2023, more than a dozen school districts there have passed statutes requiring schools to tell parents if a child wishes to change their pronouns, use a different restroom, etc.
Disingenuous advocates of these rules claim that they protect children’s “health and well-being” by informing parents of what’s going on with them. That would be a lovely sentiment, save for the fact that we have all seen what can happen when parents who are bigots find out that their kid is gay or trans. They have been known to kick their kids out of their homes, physically hurt or even kill them, and send them to conversion therapy or to those truly horrifying Christian “troubled teen” boarding “schools.” There is a reason why teen runaways are disproportionately members of the LGBTQ+ community.
It’s understandable that these people don’t like other people to assume that they are all child abusers, but if they want their kids to come out to them, it’s their job to be the kind of parents those kids feel safe coming out to. It’s not the job of school districts to presume they know better than students do on this front.
We need to start getting bills like this going in every state. These people are bound and determined to make life hell for all the LGBTQ+ teens out there and they are not going to back off any time soon.
PREVIOUSLY:
Way back in the 80s I made a student documentary about homeless teenagers who lived on the streets and in vacant buildings in Hollywood. The cops called them runaways, but I was struck to learn that most of were throwaways. That is, kids who had been kicked out of their homes. Many were LGBT
BINGO!
Charlotte Clymer
@cmclymer
Every transphobic argument can basically be boiled down to: "I actually don't know the science at all or have a good argument here, but trans people challenge my long held view of the world and it's very uncomfortable and everyone should be expected to move around my discomfort."