New CA bill introduces ban on school policies ‘forcibly outing’ LGBTQ+ students

[LoriDee]

New CA bill introduces ban on school policies 'forcibly outing' LGBTQ+ students
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Fox5 News - Danielle Dawson
Posted: May 22, 2024 / 05:02 PM PDT
Updated: May 22, 2024 / 05:02 PM PDT

State lawmakers are introducing a new bill that would prohibit California's school districts from enacting policies requiring educators to inform parents about transgender students' identities.

The measure will be added to Assembly Bill 1955, which was introduced by Asm. Chris Ward (D-San Diego) earlier this year, through a maneuver called a "gut-and-amend," replacing an existing bill with an entirely new one.

Under the revised version of the bill, called the "Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today's Youth" or SAFETY Act, school districts would be barred from enacting what Ward describes as "forced outing polices," or rules mandating educators to inform parents about their students' gender identity or sexual orientation if they are open about it at school.

The bill would also direct the state's Department of Education to provide resources for parents and students to navigate conversations about gender and sexual orientation on their own terms, and create protections for staff against retaliation if they refuse to out a student.

The proposed law codifies existing guidelines from the state Department of Education on how districts should accommodate its LGBTQ+ students, particularly those that are transgender or non-binary, for better academic outcomes while protecting their right to privacy.

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[LoriDee]

Follow-up Report by the San Francisco Bee Fact Check.

Fact check: California lawmaker statements about parents of transgender children are wrong
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San Francisco Bee - ANDREW SHEELER
UPDATED MAY 24, 2024 2:06 PM

A California Republican lawmaker made a series of false statements Wednesday, in response to a Democratic bill that would stop school districts from forcing school staff to inform parents that their child is transgender.

"Let's be clear. There are no 'forced outing' policies in California. This is a false narrative manufactured to prey on people's emotions," Essayli wrote in the lengthy post.

Essayli has frequently taken exception to describing the practice of forcibly revealing a student's gender to their parents against their will as "forced outing," though that is in fact what districts across California have been doing since the first such policy was enacted last summer.

School districts from Chino Valley to Rocklin have passed policies requiring teachers to notify parents if their child uses different pronouns or a different name at school, regardless of whether that notification would place the child in danger of abuse.

Which leads to Essayli's second falsehood.

"There is no evidence that parents are rejecting children who are experiencing gender dysphoria," Essayli wrote, referring to the medical diagnosis for the psychological distress resulting from the conflict between one's sex assigned at birth and one's gender identity.

This is incorrect.

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Continue reading the full article for all of the facts.
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