Calif. Considers Bill That Blurs 'Gender Identity' Rules in Schools
A new law proposed in the California State Assembly would dispose of gender segregation in schools, allowing students to attend "elementary and secondary school classes and courses, including nonacademic and elective classes" and related facilities in accordance with their "gender identity."
The legislative piece, Assembly Bill 266, would require schools to allow students to play on sports teams according to their "gender identity" and not their biological sex. It would also provide them with access to necessary facilities, like locker rooms.
If the law, proposed by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), passes, a boy who claims a female "gender identity," for example, would have the right to try out for a girls sports team. The new law would require "that participation in a particular physical education activity or sport, if required of pupils of one sex, be available to pupils of each sex." The bill would also require "that a pupil be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs, activities, and facilities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records."
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Some observers fear that the new law would be the first step in completely blurring gender differences in school.
"If you haven't gotten involved in government before, consider it now. AB 266 proposes that your daughters will encounter the little boys who 'identify' with them in the girls restroom at school. Your sons will deal with girls sharing their locker space dressing out for PE. Really, have the majority of politicians in California lost their minds?" a California mother commented on the news via her Facebook profile.
"With [all] the problems facing this state this is what they are working on?" another user expressed.
Ammiano, who proposed the legislation, became the first public school teacher in San Francisco to make his sexual orientation a matter of public knowledge in 1975, having had worked next to the known gay activist, Harvey Milk.
