The Supreme Court made the right decision Monday to block Gavin Newsom’s insane law barring schools from informing parents whose children say they want to change genders.
The court’s decision is only a preliminary one, but the final outcome is now absolutely certain.
This is a law, AB 1955, that never should have been passed. It was opposed by the majority of voters even in deep-blue California. It was even opposed by liberal radio host Charlamage tha God, who said it was “ridiculous,” because “teachers should inform parents about everything.”
For years, California’s political class treated parents like obstacles to be managed while hiding information from them and stripping away their constitutional, God-given rights.
Until now.
In Mirabelli v. Bonta, the court lifted the Ninth Circuit’s stay and restored U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez’s ruling affirming what should never have been controversial: Parents have a constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children. Period.
This case began because two courageous California teachers refused to lie to parents. They were told to keep secrets about students’ gender identity changes, to facilitate social transitions, and to withhold information from mothers and fathers.
Newsom signed AB 1955 into law, doubling down on secrecy. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Attorney General Rob Bonta joined him in pushing policies that cut parents out of life-altering decisions.
Newsom claimed that he was protecting kids from being “outed” as transgender — as if what parents wanted public schools to do was to humiliate their children in public and bully them.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
When Newsom was confronted by a reporter who asked the governor, “Why should parents not know if their kids are transitioning at school?” he had no answer except to say it wasn’t an issue worth debating, because it only affected “1% of the population.”
One percent of children are still people’s children. And 100 percent of us have been children. Every single one of us has parents. That is not a fringe issue. That is the foundation of society.
Again, the law never should have been passed. Newsom signed it because he bowed to the most radical activists in the LGBTQ+ movement — and because of a spirit of vindictiveness against school districts that had the audacity to elect conservative members in 2022.
All of that is just politics. It’s common sense to allow parents to know what their kids are going through.
Parents are the primary protectors of their children’s best interests. The Constitution still applies here in the Golden State.
This is more than a legal victory. It is a warning shot.
Parents are done being sidelined. This is the huge win California families needed.
All hands are on deck. We keep fighting the good fight.
And we are not done.
Sonja Shaw is the president of the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education and a candidate for California state superintendent of public instruction.
