The California attorney general is launching an all-out assault on parents and families with a new lawsuit asserting state control over schoolchildren.
On Monday, state Attorney General Rob Bonta sued to stop a new policy in a southern California school district that requires schools to notify parents whenever a child identifies as transgender and begins to pursue a so-called gender transition. The new guidelines adopted by the Chino Valley Unified School District in July would have required schools to tell parents if their child sought changes in pronoun use, sports participation, or bathroom assignments contrary to his or her sex.
The state’s Democrat attorney general argues the district’s new disclosure rule violates students’ civil rights and risks “emotional, physical, and psychological harm.”
“Every student has the right to learn and thrive in a school environment that promotes safety, privacy, and inclusivity — regardless of their gender identity,” Bonta said in a statement. “We’re in court challenging Chino Valley Unified’s forced outing policy for wrongfully and unconstitutionally discriminating against and violating the privacy rights of LGBTQ+ students. The forced outing policy wrongfully endangers the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of non-conforming students who lack an accepting environment in the classroom and at home.”
The attorney general’s press release went on to disparage concerned parents and school board members as passing the measure with “animosity, discrimination, and prejudice” toward trans-identified students, “as evidenced by statements made during the Board’s hearing.”
“In discussing the policy before its passage, board members made a number of statements describing students who are transgender or gender-nonconforming as suffering from a ‘mental illness,’ or ‘perversion,'” the press release said. “The Board President went so far as to state that transgender and gender nonbinary individuals needed ‘non-affirming’ parental actions so that they could ‘get better.'”
The data, however, supports claims made by the proposal’s proponents and vindicates the board president’s alleged recommendation that parents adopt a cautious “non-affirming” approach to their trans-identified kids.
A 2019 study found nearly 60 percent of trans-identified patients in a more than 10,000-patient survey were diagnosed with at least one psychiatric disorder. Meanwhile, access to transgender medical interventions has been shown to increase the risk of suicide. A report last summer from the conservative Heritage Foundation found that “easing access to cross-sex treatments without parental consent significantly increases suicide rates.”
Another major long-term study out of Sweden showed that people who underwent transgender surgery were 19 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.
[RELATED: Science Is On The Side Of Those Resisting Transgender Ideology In Schools]
More and more detransitioners are now coming forward to share stories of how impulsive prepubescent medical treatment left them permanently “damaged.” In July, a 19-year-old detransitioner named Chloe Cole, who had a double mastectomy, testified on Capitol Hil about the “nightmare” she experienced as a victim of adolescent transgender ideology.
“It’s caused permanent changes to my body. My voice will forever be deeper, my jawline sharper, my nose longer,” she said. “My bone structure permanently masculinized. My Adam’s apple more prominent. My fertility unknown. I look in the mirror sometimes, and I feel like a monster.”
Yet the United States remains an outlier with its approach to trans minor medical treatment. Physicians have been found to “rubber-stamp” diagnoses of gender dysphoria to approve devastating procedures.
In June, England passed new restrictions on irreversible transgender medical interventions for pediatric patients. Other European nations are following suit as more research emerges on the dangers of premature interventions such as cross-sex hormones and surgeries.
“In the past few years, European health authorities conducted systematic reviews of evidence for the benefits and risks of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones,” the City Journal reported in February. “The findings from these reviews — that the certainty of benefits is very low — guided the hand of policymakers there to restrict access to hormones.”
In California, however, leaders are on a crusade to establish the state as a “haven” for gender-confused children. Last fall, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to “offer refuge” for out-of-state minors seeking trans medical interventions in California without parental consent. The new law also mandates that doctors hide children’s medical information related to “gender identity” from their parents.
State animosity toward parents who oppose transgender ideology escalated this summer with legislation drafted in Sacramento that would charge parents with “child abuse” if they don’t “affirm” a child’s trans ideations.
Republican state Sen. Scott Wilk bluntly recommended that parents “flee” the state over Democrats’ transgender radicalism.
“In the past when we’ve had these discussions and I’ve seen parental rights atrophy, I’ve encouraged people to keep fighting,” Wilk said in June. “I’ve changed my mind on that,” Wilk added. “If you love your children, you need to flee California. You need to flee.”
Wilk declared he would leave the state himself when his legislative term expires.
