California sues school district over its policy to forcibly out trans students

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) filed a lawsuit against the Chino Valley Unified School District on Monday over its policy requiring schools to out transgender and non-binary students to their possibly unsupportive parents.

Earlier this summer, the district approved a policy requiring school officials to notify parents and guardians in writing within three days if their child requests to use a name, gendered pronouns, or gendered school facilities (such as bathrooms or locker rooms) that don’t match the sex they were assigned at birth. The policy requires officials to communicate the child’s gender identity to their parents, even if the child doesn’t consent.

Related:

School board meeting descends into chaos as people debate outing trans kids to their parents

Some of the 300 attendees chanted “Kick him out” during the contentious four-hour meeting after a state official supported trans kids.

The “forced outing policy” violates the California Constitution’s protections of equal rights, privacy, and freedom from gender-based discrimination, Bonta’s lawsuit states. Bonta, who may run to become California’s governor in 2026, warned the district that its policy violated state law at least one week before filing his lawsuit.

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“Across the country and in our own backyard, the LGBTQ+ community is under attack, and transgender and gender-nonconforming students are on the front lines,” he added in public comments delivered Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times. “They have taken great pains to go out of their way, despite our warnings of the illegality of this action beforehand, to trample the rights of students, to trample the rights of children. They are fueled by animus.”

The policy is supported by several anti-LGBTQ+ groups, including the California Family Council, a group that considers gender-affirming care for trans youth a form of “medical abuse;” the Pacific Justice Institute, which opposes bans on conversion therapy; and Moms for Liberty, a so-called “anti-woke, parents’ rights” group that has recently been labeled as an extremist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

However, the Chino Valley Unified School Board President Sonja Shaw called Bonta’s lawsuit an “aggressive” form of “government overreach” against a “common sense” policy meant to prevent “perversion” from being pushed upon schoolchildren.

Concurrently, Republican state lawmakers are pushing voters to approve of 2024 ballot measures that would ban minors from accessing gender-affirming care and from playing on sports teams matching their gender identities.

In a Monday tweet, gay state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) wrote, “The extremists who are so obsessed with trans kids — kids who are just trying to live their lives & be who they are — are pushing proposals that will result in more of these kids staying in the closet & committing suicide. Just leave these kids alone.”

The extremists who are so obsessed with trans kids — kids who are just trying to live their lives & be who they are — are pushing proposals that will result in more of these kids staying in the closet & committing suicide. Just leave these kids alone.

— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) August 28, 2023

“We will stand our ground and protect our children with all we can because we are not breaking the law,” Shaw told the aforementioned publication. “Parents have a constitutional right in the upbringing of their children, period. Bring it.”

Similar policies have been proposed in at least two other California state districts: Murrieta Valley Unified and Orange Unified. The policies violate the California Department of Education’s (CDE) policies, which state that “schools must consult with a transgender student to determine who can or will be informed of the student’s transgender status, if anyone, including the student’s family.”

The CDE states that “schools are required to respect the student’s wishes” and adds that in some “very rare circumstances where a school believes there is a specific and compelling ‘need to know,’ the school should inform the student that the school intends to disclose the student’s transgender status [to their parents or guardians], giving the student the opportunity to make that disclosure [themselves].”

Over 49,000 Californians between the ages of 13 and 17 identify as transgender, nearly 1.9% of the total age group, according to a 2022 report by the Williams Institute.

School districts in New Jersey and Florida have similar policies requiring educators to out their LGBTQ+ students. Indiana recently signed a similar student-outing policy into law. Republican legislators also passed a similar nationwide bill which has no chance of passing the Democrat-led Senate.

Right-wing groups have said such policies are needed to prevent schools from “secretly” encouraging students to change genders without their parents’ knowledge. However, medical experts say that transgender and nonbinary youth don’t transition just because their peers and adult figures pressure them to do so.

A 2022 Trevor Project survey revealed that only 32% of trans and nonbinary youths felt that their home was a supportive and gender-affirming environment.