A Californian school district is suing governor Gavin Newsom over a new law that bars schools from outing LGBTQ+ children to their parents.
The Democrat governor signed the bill, known as the Safety Act, on Monday (15 July), to prevent schools from creating policies that would require teachers to out LGBTQ+ students by telling their parents about a name change, pronoun change or their identity.
California is the first state to explicitly ban school districts from notifying parents if their child starts using a pronoun that differs from the one on their school record.
Assembly member Chris Ward, who proposed the bill, said it would allow children to have conversations about their identity “on their own terms”, and that “forced outing policies harm everyone”.
The policy has not been welcomed by everyone, however, with billionaire Elon Musk saying he would move the headquarters of SpaceX and the social media platform X from California to Texas because of the law, which he described as the “last straw”.
Musk, whose trans daughter cut ties with him in 2022, claimed the law would cause a “massive destruction of parental rights”.
Chino Valley sues California governor
Now, a school district, which has been in legal difficulty over its policy requiring teachers to out trans students to their parents, has decided to sue.
The Chino Valley Unified School District’s policy was introduced in July 2023, but was blocked by judges.
The Liberty Justice Center, which is representing the district, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday (16 July), with Newsom, California attorney general Rob Bonta and the state superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond, named as defendants, the East Bay Times reported.
The lawsuit asks the court to prevent California implementing the new legislation, which is set to take effect in January, over claims it violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
“School officials do not have the right to keep secrets from parents, but parents do have a constitutional right to know what their minor children are doing at school,” said Emily Rae, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center.
“Parents are the legal guardians of their children, not governor Newsom, attorney general Bonta or superintendent Thurmond. We will continue to defend parents’ rights and children’s well-being by challenging invasive laws, at no cost to taxpayers.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Izzy Gardon, the director of communications at the governor’s office, called the lawsuit “deeply unserious”, and claimed it was designed to “stoke the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter” rather than act as a legitimate legal claim.
The law does not allow a student’s name or gender identity to be changed on an official school record without their parent or guardian’s consent or allow teachers and schools to hide information from parents, the statement points out. It merely protects students against “forced outing” policies. It also does not limit students’ ability to discuss their sexual orientation or gender identity with their families.
The law comes as eight states across the US, including Alabama, Tennessee and Idaho, have put legislation into place that would force schools to out transgender pupils to their parents, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
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