(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A recent revision to California legislation required judges trying custody disputes to treat parents who refused to “affirm” their child’s gender identity as a threat to their safety.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the bill—which passed through the State Assembly in March—demanded that judges favor the parent who affirms their child’s delusion as being more considerate of their “health, safety, and welfare.”
The bill’s opposition expressed concern that this change would lead to state courts treating “misgendering” as abuse.
“When you say that gender affirmation is in the child’s best interest for health, safety and welfare, it takes nothing to say [non-affirmation] is now abuse—because you’re not taking care of the health, safety, and welfare if you’re not affirming them,” said San Francisco attorney, Erin Friday.
If passed, school administrators, church officials and hospital workers must affirm a child’s perception of their own gender, lest they risk incurring charges of child abuse.
In AB 957, co-author State Senator Scott Wiener made no attempt to limit reports of child abuse by the child’s age, length of gender identification or regulate a child’s affirmation of social transition. He also neglected to provide a definition of a “nonaffirming” parent or guardian.
Parent’s rights activists fought the bill, calling it a “grotesque violation of both children’s and parent’s rights.”
“While more and more European countries pound the breaks on ghoulish gender medicine for kids, California has decided to mandate it,” said Jay Richards, director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion and Family.
“They not only want to make sure that any child with discordant feelings toward his or her sexed body gets fast tracked to cross-sex hormones and sterilizing surgery, state Democrats want to go after parents who might otherwise hesitate.”
Critics also spoke out against the bill for its possible effects on visitation or custody rights for parents who did not ascribe to gender ideology.
“It’s not a giant leap–it’s a tiny step to get there,” said Friday. “We know exactly where they are going with it. I didn’t think the bill could get worse, but it got worse.”
Wiener previously authored legislation to make California a sanctuary state for minors seeking sex changes without parental consent.
He has several other forthcoming proposals—one of which would require foster parents to affirm trans-identifying children. Another proposal, if passed, would reform the state’s sex offender registry to give a pass to gay pedophiles.
