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[Publisher’s Note – We are pleased to offer this column from Chris Norby. He argues that with AB 1266–and a host of other such bad laws—Republicans can regain relevancy in 2014. – Flash]
Now the law of our state, AB 1266 represents what comes from one-party domination in Sacramento when that party is controlled by an extremist fringe. When voters learn the truth of AB 1266–and a host of other such bad laws—Republicans can regain relevancy in 2014.
Chris Norby
According to the bill by Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) a student’s gender in K-12 public schools will no longer be determined by biology but by identity. Access to restrooms, locker rooms and athletic teams will now be based not on actual boy/girl differences, but on gender identification.
While trying to protect kids who may be different, it creates whole new set of ethical and legal problems. How do you ask a 5-year old child their “gender identity”? Should parents decide for them? Do administrators have that power?
Will parents be pressured to change their child’s gender identity? It’s already happening in San Francisco. One elementary school boy loved opera, hated sports, hung out mostly with girls and was being teased by a group of boys. The principal told his parents he must get rid of his pink Crocs and cut his hair—or be identified as a girl. (see “About a Boy”, New Yorker Magazine, March 18, 2013)
It’s an extreme approach to ending bullying; simply reclassify the boy into a girl and he’ll no longer be bullied—at least not in the boys’ bathroom. Students as young as five can now be diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” and reassigned to a different bathroom
The next step will be to require school districts to keep records to assure a sufficient number of boys and girls are being redefined as their opposite sex, or trans-gendered. The legislature already passed a law to keep statistics on the sexual orientation of state judges—can public school students be far behind?
When will gender identity be determined? Can it be reversed? Young kids go through a lot of transitory phases. Should girls once seen as tom boys now be designated as real ones? Should boys who like dolls be forced enter kindergarten as girls? Kids who don’t fit gender stereotypes will be pressured to come out as their opposite, then they’ll be stuck with a label they may not want. Transitory phases shouldn’t permanently define our kids. Long-term studies of young children with gender dysphoria found that only 15% continue to have these feelings as adolescents and adults.
Northwestern University Bioethicist Alice Dreger states “No child, with gender dysphoria or not, should have to decide who they are that early in life. Maybe a kid expresses a sense of being the opposite gender because of cultural signals.”
AB 1266 creates whole new problems for high schools, too. Placement on competitive sports teams affects college admissions and scholarship money. Boys claiming female identities still have all the male physical advantages. At 17 they average 6” taller and 25 lbs. heavier than girls. Is it fair they be allowed to compete on the girls’ basketball team?
AB 1266 is a legal nightmare for California’s school boards and their principals. Parents will sue to allow their kids into opposite-sex bathrooms. Other parents will sue to stop them. Estranged parents will sue each other over their child’s proper gender identity. Parents of boys will sue to force them onto girls’ athletic teams and girls’ parents will sue to stop them.
Ironically, female firefighters just won a lawsuit against the City of Long Beach for being forced to change in front of their male counterparts. The same courts will likely be sympathetic to teenage girls forced into the same circumstance by AB 1266.
Were any of these questions even considered when AB 1266 was rushed through? With two-thirds one-party rule in the legislature, there is little tolerance for dissenting views. There were a few local moderate democrats who did not vote for it, such as Tom Daly and Lou Correa. Sharon Quirk-Silva was the only O.C. legislator to support it. She comes from the swing 65th District, whose moderate and conservative voters do not support such an extremist agenda being forced on Orange County schools and parents.
Make them run on their record in 2014!
About Chris Norby
“Judge government not by its intentions, but by its results; and treat the taxpayer’s money as if it were our own-because it is.” These are the guiding principles of Assemblyman Chris Norby’s 26 years of elective office.
Norby won a special election to fill the seat left vacant by the sudden resignation of Michael Duvall. Norby servee on the Appropriations, Joint Legislative Audit, Local Government, and Transportation Committees, and is Vice-Chair of Education Committee.
Prior to his election to the legislature, Norby served on the Orange County Board of Supervisors for 7 years, representing Fullerton, La Habra, Placentia, Buena Park and Anaheim. Norby served on the Fullerton City Council from 1984-2002, including three years as Mayor.