Republican lawmakers across the nation have introduced more than 400 bills to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people in the current legislative cycle, according to Human Rights Watch. One of them is Assembly Bill 1314, an odious proposal by California Assemblymembers Bill Essayli, R-Corona, and James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, to compel teachers, counselors and other school staff to notify parents if their kid is transgender.
Apparently the state’s Republicans aren’t quite as concerned with privacy as they pretend.
Under the bill, notification would be triggered if any school employee finds out that a student is identifying as a gender other than what is on official school records or if a student participates in a sex-segregated school program or athletic team or uses facilities that don’t align with the student’s official gender. Converting school staff into the gender police will do nothing to improve education and add yet another task to already overworked schoolteachers and other staff.
