Huntington Beach officials are moving forward with a new law that would require teachers and adults working at city facilities, parks and libraries to inform parents if their children are transgender or gay.
The law gears the city up to challenge Assembly Bill 1955 that was signed into law by Gov Gavin Newsom, which prohibits school districts from adopting transgender and sexuality notification policies.
City Council members narrowly voted 4-3 along political party lines Tuesday night to approve the law that declares Huntington Beach a Parents’ Right to Know city and would also grant the city attorney the right to initiate a lawsuit on behalf of a resident against the state law.
To read the ordinance, click here.
Republican Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark, who brought forth the proposal, said in a statement that the state law prohibiting transgender notification policies was government overreach.
“The issue of a child’s gender is personal, private, and should be discussed between the parent and the child only—not dictated by the State,” reads the statement.
“If parents, schools, and cities do not stand up to the State, it will continue its overreach, invading every aspect of our lives and those of the most vulnerable in our society—our children”
Democratic Councilmembers Rhonda Bolton, Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser, all of whom are running for reelection, were the dissenting votes.
They argued the ordinance is a distraction and out of the city’s purview to regulate, a waste of public dollars, a legal liability and vague.
Kalmick called the law an expansion of government.
“We provide camp to kids over the summer. But for sure, one of those services isn’t looking in people’s underpants or watching who’s holding hands with whom. I just don’t see how that’s the role of government,” he said.
Kalmick also pushed back on the section of the ordinance that would allow City Attorney Michael Gates to sue over the state law on behalf of a resident and called it a dangerous policy.
Gates was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
Republican Councilman Tony Strickland said officials in Sacramento are the ones committing government overreach.
“No one has more at stake in the future of a child than that of the parent of that child. The children are not the property of the state. The children are under the parent’s guidance,” he said.
Moser said the ordinance inserts government into the private lives of residents.
“This ordinance says exactly what it claims to oppose. It inserts government employees into the most personal aspects of a child’s life, something that should remain within the family when the child is ready,” she said.
Moser also said the ordinance is politically motivated as well as distracting from issues in the city like the controversial airshow settlement.
Tuesday’s vote comes after school districts across California last fall – including the Orange Unified School District – adopted transgender notification policies despite condemnation from state officials who also threatened legal action against such rules.
[Read: An OC School District Adopts Transgender Notification; State AG Issues Legal Threat]
It also comes after city leaders spent over a year debating the future of their libraries, with the council members approving a new panel to review books before they’re put on shelves in the children’s section of the library amidst questions and concerns if pornographic material was surfacing there.
[Read: Huntington Beach Creates Panel To Decide What Books Go Into City Library]
Meanwhile, Groundswell – formerly known as the OC Human Relations Commission – annual hate crime report released last September showed an 83% increase in hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community in 2021.
Hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community have increased by 2,100% since 2017, according to Groundswell.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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