California’s gender madness comes for the children

California’s left-wing government is trying to cut parents out of the loop when it comes to their children’s health and well-being. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) just signed a law that prohibits local school districts from having policies requiring educators to inform parents when students change their gender pronouns at school.

So, localities that have implemented these “parental notification” policies to mandate that schools keep parents in the loop won’t be able to keep them in place. What does that look like in practice?

“I have talked to parents who discovered their middle-school daughters had spent the better part of an entire academic year known to the entire school as 'Spencer' or 'Ethan,'” journalist Abigail Shrier reports . “One of these girls had even roomed with the boys on an overnight school trip.”

This is sheer and utter madness.

Parents are ultimately responsible for their children. And if a child starts going by different pronouns, names, or genders, that’s likely because he or she is experiencing gender dysphoria. This is a potentially severe mental condition that often corresponds with increased anxiety, depression, and even suicidal ideation. We’re not talking about a Goth phase, here.

If parents aren’t informed about this change, they can’t get their children the necessary care for a potentially life-threatening situation. As Shrier concluded about the cases she’s covered, “The hidden transition resulted in children’s alienation from loving parents trying to protect them.”

Progressive LGBT activists and Democratic politicians argue it’s necessary to keep parents out of the loop because some parents might abuse, neglect, or kick out their children if their transgender or nonbinary identity is brought to their attention. In any instance where that does happen, of course, it’s morally grotesque. But it strains credulity to argue that this is anything but a rare case, particularly in California, and isolated worst-case scenarios cannot justify undermining the sanctity of parental rights.

It’s also possible that students will be abused if their poor academic performance is brought to the attention of their parents. But no serious person has ever argued that this rare outcome means schools shouldn’t notify parents when children are failing their classes.

A better solution would be to have narrow exceptions within policies that mandate parental notification for cases where counselors or school officials have strong reason to believe the child would be subject to physical abuse or criminal neglect if the parents were informed about his or her gender. But, frankly, if there’s good reason to fear that outcome, child services should already be involved because that’s an unsafe home for a child.

So, what Newsom is doing is utterly indefensible. It may also be illegal.

The libertarian-leaning Liberty Justice Center has already filed suit against the state challenging this new law banning parental notification policies, arguing it “violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).”

“PK-12 minor students, most of whom are too young to drive, vote, or provide medical consent for themselves, are also too young to make life-altering decisions about their expressed gender identity without their parents’ knowledge,” Emily Rae, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, said in a statement.

(Disclosure: The Liberty Justice Center is representing me pro bono in an unrelated case .)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Legal or not, California’s new policy is an unmitigated disaster, even from a pro-LGBT perspective. After years of progressive overreach, we’re already seeing significant backlash against the LGBT community and even declining support for gay rights in public polling. There is no better way to accelerate this trend and light support for LGBT peopl on fire than to start coming between parents and their children.

Newsom and the fringe activists behind his radical policy might genuinely believe they’re helping protect transgender children. But all they’re really doing is undermining parents’ rights and sabotaging acceptance for the LGBT community.

Brad Polumbo ( @Brad_Polumbo ) is an independent journalist, YouTuber , and co-founder of BASEDPolitics.