Judge blocks school district’s transphobic forced outing policy

A judge has temporarily blocked a policy passed by California’s Chino Valley Unified School District that requires schools to out transgender and non-binary students to their possibly unsupportive parents.

Judge Thomas Garza of the San Bernardino Superior Court issued a temporary injunction against the policy on Wednesday calling it “too broad, too general” and without “a clear purpose or reference of parental support and involvement.” Garza issued his ruling to allow higher courts time to consider a lawsuit against the policy issued by state Attorney General Rob Bonta (D).

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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.

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The “forced outing policy” violates the California Constitution’s protections of equal rights, privacy, and freedom from gender-based discrimination, Bonta’s lawsuit states. In his decision, Garza also noted that the conservative evangelical school board described gender identity as a “delusion” and a “mental illness” when discussing the policy. A hearing on the policy is scheduled on October 13 to consider the policy’s legality.

While the policy’s supporters say it’s essential for parents to know about their child’s gender identity, Delbert Tran, California’s deputy attorney general, argued in court that students should be able to talk to discuss the issue at a time of their own choosing when they feel emotionally ready, The Bozeman Daily Chronicle wrote.

California state Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R), a legislator who has supported forced outing policies, reacted to Garza’s ruling, stating that the policy exists to “help trans kids” and give parents “the opportunity to support their kids.”

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.

“We’ve said from the beginning this is a fight we want to have, and we intend to take it to the Supreme Court,” Essayli said.

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.

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.

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,” Bonta’s lawsuit claims.

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. 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.