School district approved “forced outing” of trans kids the same day a judge blocked a similar policy

The same day that a judge temporarily blocked a California school district’s policy requiring school officials to out trans and nonbinary students to their parents, another district in the state approved a similar policy.

On Wednesday, the Rocklin Unified School District School Board in Northern California voted 4–1 in favor of the policy, which requires schools to notify parents if their child requests to identify as a gender that is different from the one they were assigned at birth, SF Gate reports. Schools will also be required to let parents know if their child requests to be referred to by a new name or pronouns that “do not align with the child’s biological sex or gender,” if they want to use bathrooms, locker rooms, or participate on athletics teams that do not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth.

Related Stories Judge blocks school district’s transphobic forced outing policy

The judge said the policy lacks “a clear purpose.” One legislator wants the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the issue.

Critics of such policies, which have been pushed by so-called “parental rights” advocates across the country, argue that they amount to forcibly outing trans and nonbinary young people to parents who may not be supportive. A 2022 Trevor Project survey revealed that only 32% of trans and nonbinary youths felt that their home was a supportive and gender-affirming environment.

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“I personally have a friend who would not be safe in his home if he came out to his parents as trans,” on student who spoke at Wednesday’s board meeting said. “He would not be safe. His siblings would not be kind to him. And his parents would not be kind to him.”

Board members who supported the policy, including vice president Tiffany Saathoff, characterized it a victory for “parent’s rights.”

“Tonight, what we are discussing and we are addressing is a conversation with a parent, and right now there is no state or federal law that says that a student’s rights supersede a parent’s rights,” Saathoff said. “It’s not in writing anywhere.” 

The decision came the same day that Judge Thomas Garza of the San Bernardino Superior Court issued a temporary injunction against a similar policy approved by Chino Valley Unified School District earlier this summer. In his decision, Garza called the policy “too broad, too general” and without “a clear purpose or reference of parental support and involvement.”

In his lawsuit challenging the Chino Valley Unified School District policy, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said that it violates the state constitution’s protections of equal rights, privacy, and freedom from gender-based discrimination.

On Thursday, Bonta issued a statement condemning the Rocklin Unified School District School Board’s policy, noting a 2015 survey in which 10 percent of respondents reported experiencing violence at the hands of an immediate family member because they were transgender.

I have said it before and I will say it again: We will not tolerate any policy that perpetuates discrimination, harassment, or exclusion within our educational institutions. https://t.co/rJS59ukFvO

— Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) September 7, 2023

“Despite our ongoing commitment to stand against any actions that target and discriminate against California’s transgender and gender-nonconforming youth, Rocklin Unified has chosen to endanger their civil rights by adopting a policy that forcibly outs them without consideration of their safety and well-being,” Bonta said. “I have said it before and I will say it again: We will not tolerate any policy that perpetuates discrimination, harassment, or exclusion within our educational institutions.”

While such “forced outing” policies appear to violate the California Department of Education’s policies protecting trans and nonbinary students under the state’s School Success and Opportunity Act, two other California school districts have proposed similar policies.

Recently, a coalition of anti-LGBTQ+ conservative groups announced an effort to codify forced outing of trans and nonbinary student into California law via a proposed 2024 ballot initiative.