California Lawmaker Blocks Parental Rights Bill as Debate Continues Over Secret Gender Transitions at Schools

The California state capitol building in Sacramento on April 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The Democrat chairman of a California Assembly committee has blocked a parental rights bill that would ban secret gender transitions at schools following several packed school board meetings that reflect an ongoing national debate over student privacy versus parental rights and growing public interest in the controversy.

Assembly Bill 1314, authored by Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Corona), would require a teacher, counselor, or school employee to notify a parent within three days of becoming aware that a student is identifying at school as a gender not aligning with the child’s sex on their birth certificate or sex assigned at birth.

Assembly Education Committee Chairman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) issued a statement on April 10 saying the committee will not hear the proposed legislation, “not only because the bill is proposing bad policy, but also because a hearing would potentially provide a forum for increasingly hateful rhetoric targeting LGBTQ youth.”

Meanwhile, parental rights advocates and transgender rights activists in Chico in Northern California, and Chino, Newport Beach, and Costa Mesa in Southern California, have shown up at meetings in recent weeks demanding an end to policies that keep students’ gender identity secret from parents.

Muratsuchi did not respond to questions on April 7 from The Epoch Times regarding rumors that the bill would be killed before it reached committee despite widespread public interest in secret gender transitions in California public schools. 

The bill would force educators to “out” transgender students to their parents, potentially putting some of them at risk of abuse in “unwelcoming” homes, he said in the statement.

“AB 1314 ignores the reality that not all trans or non-binary youth have such loving and supportive families,” Muratsuchi said, noting the LGBTQ Caucus “strongly supports” his decision to kill the bill. “The reality is that LGBTQ+ youth oftentimes face harassment, isolation, bullying, and even physical harm from their own families.”

Additionally, he claimed such youth have been “negatively impacted by recent debates and laws around anti-LGBTQ+ policies and many have experienced victimization.”

Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Corona) speaks at a press conference with supporters about his bill AB 1314 in Jurupa Valley, Calif., on March 13, 2023. (Screenshot via YouTube/Bill Essayli)

Chino Meeting

At the Chino Valley Unified School District meeting on April 6, Essayli dismissed arguments that student privacy outweighs parental rights based on “a non-binding memo” from the California Department of Education suggesting schools let children keep their gender identities hidden from parents. The memo cites state law, Assembly Bill 1266, which officials claim supports the notion of student privacy.

However, the law says nothing about keeping gender transitions secret from parents.

“This is nonsense. There are no such legal doctrines. Kids do not have privacy from parents. Kids don’t have capacity to make decisions as minors, and their parents are critical components to their best interests,” Essayli told the board.

After more than an hour of public comments, the board voted 4–1 in favor of a resolution supporting AB 1314.

“Nobody owns our kids. Kids belong to their parents, and that should be reaffirmed. That is the law, and even if this bill does not pass, I encourage this district and every district up and down the state to enact this policy,” he said.

The bill is sponsored by several groups, including Our Duty, a parental rights group at the center of the transgender debate.

Erin Friday, a Democrat and the western U.S. regional leader of Our Duty, which sponsored the bill, told The Epoch Times on April 10 she is disappointed the bill was killed before a public hearing which, she said, contradicts the Democratic Party’s promise to protect democracy.

“Democracy has changed to where the most marginalized belief system is the only thing that matters and parents are shoved to the side,” she said. “How does democracy work when you don’t even have discourse about issues that affect every California parent? That’s not democracy. That’s totalitarianism.”

Chico Meeting

Parental rights advocates and LGBT activists packed an April 5 meeting at which the Chico Unified School District voted 3–2 to stick with its current “student privacy” policy and voted 3–2 to reject a counter resolution that would have made “parental inclusion” mandatory.

Aurora Regino, a Chico parent who is currently suing the school district, told the school board a school counselor socially transitioned her 11-year-old daughter to a male behind her back.

Aurora Regino in Chico, Calif., on April 12, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

“Shortly before this happened, my father had recently passed away, and I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My daughter was distressed and began questioning her sexuality, so she decided to reach out to a wellness counselor at her elementary school,” she said.

When her daughter said she “felt like a boy,” the counselor immediately affirmed this new gender identity and from then on continued to meet with the girl without her knowledge, Regino said.

“During one of those one-on-one meetings, my daughter told the counselor she wanted to tell me about her new identity,” she said. “That counselor ignored her requests and did nothing to support her in letting me know what was going on at school.”

U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), who has introduced federal legislation to defund school districts that support secret gender transitions and “gender-affirming” practices, accused California schools of “breaking the trust” they’ve had with parents.

“Schools have really overstepped their bounds,” he said. “So, I stand with folks like Aurora Regino ... and her daughter.”

Lindsay Briggs—a college human sexuality professor, a self-described “queer woman,” and LGBT activist—called parental rights advocates “ignorant” and “paranoid” and accused them of spreading “a ridiculous lie.”

“I am sick and tired of waking up every morning awaiting to see what fresh hell awaits me and my community. I brace myself to read the latest ridiculous lie that some ignorant group is spreading about the people that I love,” Briggs said. “I look at my calendar and see what stinking meeting I have to show up to in order to make sure that some hysterical group of paranoid citizens doesn’t legislate my rights away.”

Briggs, a self-described anarchist, is closely tied to Stonewall Alliance Center, an LGBT group that provides training and resources to the community, children, and teachers in Chico.

Lindsay Briggs, a human sexuality professor, speaks at a Chico Unified School District meeting in Chico, Calif., on April 5, 2023. (Screenshot via Chico Unified School District)

Wearing a sweatshirt with a dagger and rose that read “Protect Trans Kids,” Briggs said she’s witnessed “battered and bruised young adults” damaged by the “completely warped” education system and that student privacy rights protect LGBT children from abusive parents.

“No one is telling your children to keep secrets from you. If your [child] is keeping a secret from you, there is definitely a reason.”

After the meeting, Regino, the parent suing the district, criticized the board for allowing activists to “heckle and bully” parents who are fighting for their rights to be involved in their own children’s lives, and denounced vitriol over the issue.

Harmeet Dhillon, the CEO of nonprofit legal group Center for American Liberty which is representing Regino, said in a statement following the meeting that the board’s decision is “a slap in the face” to every parent whose child is under their care.

“It makes a mockery of fundamental, constitutionally protected, parental rights and puts every child’s safety at risk,” she said. “If the Board won’t rescind this unconstitutional policy, our lawsuit will prompt the court to do it for them.”

Teri Dubose, a spokeswoman for LaMalfa, U.S. representative of Richvale, California, said in a statement that many people have lost faith in the Chico school board and the entire educational system.

“People were verbally abusive and threatening in the audience. To watch the school board accept this hostile behavior is beyond my comprehension, and I question the competency of the board chair that runs the meetings,” she said.

LaMalfa told The Epoch Times the bigger issue at play is the state taking over the role of parents.

“It is Marxism,” he said. “That’s wrong. That’s un-American, and so we have to fight it hard.”