A federal judge in San Diego ruled that California’s policies allowing schools to hide students’ gender transitions from their parents is unconstitutional, issuing a permanent injunction on the controversial practice. Teachers Elizabeth and Mirabelli and Lori West, both Christians, brought the lawsuit in response to California Department of Education policies that required them to conceal children’s gender transitions – including adopting a new name and pronouns – from their families, absent explicit permission from the child.
Mirabelli and West were placed in the “impossible” position, attorneys argued, of lying in violation of their faith and personal ethics.
U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez agreed, writing in a decision issued Monday that California parents are “left in the dark” about something as significant as their child’s gender identity.
“Even if the State Defendants could demonstrate that excluding parents was good policy on some level, such a policy cannot be implemented at the expense of parents’ constitutional rights,” Benitez wrote.
Advocates of the gender secrecy law, who included Attorney General Rob Bonta and state lawmakers, argued the policy was necessary to protect children from a “forced outing” that could cause bullying and harassment at home.
Bonta went so far as to sue Chino Valley Unified School District in 2023 for a policy that required sharing students’ transitions with parents if they adopted new names of pronouns or requested access to facilities like bathrooms not aligned with their biological sex.
Bonta and the California Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 1955, authored by Assemblymember Chris Ward, that generally barred public schools from requiring employees from revealing information about kids’ sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression from parents without the student’s consent. The law directed the California Department of Education to create guidance on the policy and resources for the families of LGBTQ+ students.
Critics quickly slammed the state policies as a violation of parents’ right to know what’s happening with their children.
“The State knew this was a losing legal battle and tried to pull out every lawyer’s trick in the book to avoid responsibility,” said Jeffrey M. Trissell, counsel at Thomas More Society and attorney at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, in a statement.
“The Court’s comprehensive ruling—granting summary judgment on all claims—protects all California parents, students, and teachers, and it restores sanity and common sense.”
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