This bill will ensure that California courts ignore out-of-state judgments separating a parent and child due to the child receiving gender-affirming medical care. 

California will also refuse to give medical information to any out-of-state subpoena seeking to criminalize or remove children from their homes. Additionally, warrants related to someone out-of-state receiving gender-affirming care will be California’s lowest priority for law enforcement. 

The preceding measures are a direct response to recent anti-trans laws. Last month, Texas Governer Greg Abbott issued a letter to Texas health agencies, declaring that gender-affirming medical care equates to child abuse. If a Texas judge hadn’t blocked Abbott’s order to inspect trans youth, this policy would have resulted in supportive parents being reported and separated from their children. 

“Parents should not live in fear of being hunted down by the Texas government for loving and supporting their child,” said Equality California’s Executive Director Tony Hoang. “As a native Texan, I’m ashamed of Gov. Abbott’s hateful attacks against trans kids and their families.”

Unfortunately, these anti-trans policies aren’t an exclusive issue for Texas. In 2022 alone, states across America have issued nearly 240 anti-LGBTQ bills, with most of them targeting trans people. This includes bans against trans children competing in sports or receiving gender-affirming care. Along with Texas, Idaho had recently approved a bill that criminalized parents and medical professionals who provided gender-affirming medical treatment, only for it to later be killed under the belief that medical decisions are a parent’s responsibility. 

“What states like Texas and Idaho are doing to trans kids and their parents is unconscionable, and we must send a clear signal that California is a place of refuge for LGBTQ people,” said Wiener. “The history of the LGBTQ community is a history of criminalization and violence: society trying to erase us and then punishing us if we refuse to be erased, whether by death, incarceration, beatings, lobotomies, electric shock therapy, conversion therapy or other forms of violence. California will not be a party to this new phase of deadly LGBTQ criminalization.”

Although both Texas’ and Idaho’s new policies are currently being stalled or ceased, there is still a prominent concern towards the increasing anti-trans legislation.

In the past few years, the number of anti-LGBTQ bills have skyrocketed, with 41 bills in 2018 to 238 bills in less than three months of 2022. Thus, the future doesn’t look promising.

“Given recent trends in anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion legislation, other Republican-controlled states no doubt will pursue similar legislation and executive action,” said Wiener.

Despite these negative developments, California’s new bill is an important step towards its part in an inclusive community.

Photo courtesy of LAILLUMINATOR.COM