California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law that prohibits school districts from informing parents when a student changes their gender identification, in a move that proponents say will help protect LBGTQ students’ privacy and prevent them from being outed.
The state is the first in the U.S. to enact such a law, bucking a growing trend — particularly in Republican-led states — in which trans youth are increasingly being stripped of legal protections and denied essential medical care.
The California legislation, which Newsom signed Monday after an intense debate in the state Legislature, effectively overrides policies from several school boards that had required teachers and staff to alert parents if a child appeared to be transgender or gender-nonconforming.
The state is the first in the U.S. to enact such a law, bucking a growing trend — particularly in Republican-led states — in which trans youth are increasingly being stripped of legal protections and denied essential medical care.
“This law helps keep children safe while protecting the critical role of parents,” Newsom spokesperson Brandon Richards said in a statement. “It protects the child-parent relationship by preventing politicians and school staff from inappropriately intervening in family matters and attempting to control if, when, and how families have deeply personal conversations.”
A number of school districts in conservative-leaning parts of the state had passed policies requiring parental notification if a student changed their pronouns or were using bathrooms that did not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Some students told the Los Angeles Times that the policies made them feel unsafe. According to The Trevor Project, which conducted a survey on the mental health of LGBTQ youths, a minority of trans and nonbinary young people said that their home was a gender-affirming space for them.
The bill had passed the state Assembly along party lines. During debate in the state Senate, Democrats argued that LGBTQ young people should be able to come out on their own terms, with one lawmaker recounting her own experience with being outed as a teenager. Republican lawmakers argued that it was crucial to have parents kept informed.
On Tuesday, tech billionaire Elon Musk announced on X that he will move the SpaceX headquarters from California to Texas, implying that he was helping families “protect their children.”