A small group of activists want California voters to decide whether transgender minors should be allowed to receive puberty blockers, hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries.
The newly-formed group, Protect Kids California, announced plans Monday to petition for three 2024 ballot initiatives that would, respectively:
- Ban transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming medical care
- Ban trans girls from girls’ competitive sports and girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms
- Require public schools to disclose a student's gender identity to their parents, if the child is out at school
The group’s co-founder, Jonathan Zachreson, says providing gender-affirming care to minors could impair their future abilities to have children. Zachreson is also a Roseville City School Board member, and founded an organization dedicated to reopening California schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have a system in California that sells false choices and false hope to parents and their kids,” he said during a Monday press conference about the initiative petitions in Sacramento. “This bill of lies has been sold to many young people, especially young women, in California.”
Medical experts say the process to getting approved for any form of gender-affirming medical care requires a sustained record of gender incongruence. In California, it also requires parental permission. Fertility can be impaired when children go from puberty blockers straight to hormone therapy, so current medical guidelines require discussion of reversible and irreversible impacts prior to any gender-affirming medical care.
LGBTQ+ leaders and organizations say the types of proposals put forward by Protect Kids California are dangerous and harmful to California’s youth.
“Let's be clear: these proposed initiatives are rooted in anti-trans and misogynistic beliefs,” said Evan Minton, a candidate for state Assembly who is trans. “They're pushed by those who deny the reality that thousands of Californians are trans and that we live in every community. They cynically exploit LGBTQ+ children as pawns to advance their narrow agenda. This manipulation is sickening and must end.”
A recent Reuters analysis found in 2021, about 42,167 U.S. minors were diagnosed with gender dysphoria (about 3,000 in California). A small but growing percentage of that group is receiving gender-affirming treatment. The study found that same year, about 1,390 young people nationwide initiated requests for puberty blockers, 4,200 initiated hormone treatment, and about 282 had a double mastectomy.
A 2018 study published in the journal Pediatrics found that when provided with gender-affirming care, trans kids — who also struggle with mental health issues at a higher rate than that of their cisgender peers — may experience less anxiety and depression.
Protect Kids California says the proposals were submitted to the Attorney General on Monday and will need to get a title and summary before the group can begin collecting signatures. Zachreson expects they will start with that process in early November of this year.
Each proposal would need 546,651 certified signatures by registered California voters to qualify for the 2024 General Election ballot.
Any initiative trying to restrict rights for trans kids may be up for a tough battle in California, which has positioned itself as a haven for gender-affirming care, as a wave of laws across the U.S. attempt to limit access for trans youth. A California law passed last year protects children who come from out of state to receive care.
Parental notification question gets litigious in California
This summer, the question of whether California parents should be notified about their child coming out as transgender at school, even if the child doesn’t want to share that information with them, has entered the spotlight.
The issue garnered some attention in April, when Republican Assembly member Bill Essayli authored a bill that would have instituted a statewide parental notification policy. The bill was opposed by LGBTQ+ lawmakers and organizations, and was not given a hearing by the California Legislature.
In July, the Chino Valley Unified School District in San Bernardino County implemented a gender identity disclosure policy. The policy requires schools to notify parents when a student requests to use a name or pronoun different from the one on their birth certificate. It echoes policies passed recently elsewhere in the state, including in Murrieta Valley and Temecula.
On Monday, state Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the Chino Valley district, and an injunction to force them to stop implementing the policy immediately. He said it violates state laws safeguarding civil rights.
"We have determined the policy discriminates against transgender and gender nonconforming students, that it violates their constitutional rights and violates their civil rights, that it has already harmed and continues to threaten their mental, emotional and physical well being," he said during a press conference.
The move was lauded by organizations fighting for transgender rights, including Equality California, who said that these policies infringe on the rights of trans kids and could set a dangerous precedent down the line.
“This lawsuit sends a clear message that discrimination and harassment have no place in our schools, and no place in California,” said Executive Director Tony Hoang. “It is our duty to ensure that all students, regardless of their gender identity, feel safe, respected, and protected within our educational institutions.”
Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, a member of California’s LGBT Caucus, posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, in support of the lawsuit.
“Each of us decides when we come out,” he said. “It’s no one else’s damn business.”
A superior court judge of the county of San Bernadino will now decide whether or not the Chino Valley Unified School district will have to halt the practice while the lawsuit makes its way through the court.
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