by Comet Ziemer
A new bill proposed in California has become the newest in a steadily climbing number of anti transgender bills being proposed and passed all throughout the U.S.A. This new bill comes as a shock to many Californians as California was thought to be one of the safest states for the LGBTQ+ community.
The bill, Assembly Bill 1314, would force schools to out transgender students to their parents if they found out they were trans. Many LGBTQ+ activists have sparked their anger at the bill, and demanded that the politicians who proposed it be held accountable. Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli sponsored the bill. Essayli made many tweets on his public twitter account talking about his plan for Assembly Bill 1314.
“Parents play a critical role in nurturing and supporting children and they cannot be removed from the equation,” said Essayli, who spoke to the press in front of Jurupa Valley High School. “Trans minors are less likely to feel depressed with parental support. Keeping parents in the dark is not just wrong, but dangerous to these minors.”
This came after Jessica Tapia, a former teacher at Jurupa Valley High, claimed that she was fired because she was going to tell the parents of one of her students that they were transgender. “I said, ‘Are you asking me to lie?’ And they said, ‘Yes. It’s the law and it’s for the student’s privacy,’” Tapia said during the conference. “I can’t understand how the school system seems to think that we ought to act as though we are the parent.” Tapia claims that she will be suing Jurupa Valley High School for wrongful termination.
Assembly Bill 1314 would be going directly against the number of transgender safety laws that are already in place in California. According to the California Department Of Education, the idea of forcibly outing students to their parents can lead to increased rates of students and “vulnerability to harassment and may violate the student’s right to privacy.”
Many trans kids choose to stay in the closet to their families for a wide variety of reasons. Some simply aren’t ready to tell their parents. Some are still figuring out their identities and don’t want to feel rushed by family. And in worst case scenarios, many parents could become abusive to their children if they found out they were transgender. Many trans kids still choose to come out in school because it is an environment often completely separated from their home lives, and they can have their own identity without influence from their parents. According to a transgender violence study, 1 in 4, or 25.9% of transgender youth between the ages of 13-17 who participated in the study reported being sexualy assulted and abused.
Outing these kids to their families will only lead to one thing, a distrust and hatred between parent and child. There will be a rise in abuse, homelessness, addiction, and suicide for transgender youth due to any negative treatment they might get from their families.
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