California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill this week that allows schools to hide information from parents about their child’s gender identity.
AB 1955 is the first of its kind in the United States. It prohibits school staff “from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent.”
The law—which passed through both chambers of the state’s Democrat-controlled Assembly—means that children can identify by their biological sex at home and a different gender at school. The bill claims that it is designed to protect children and teens by keeping such critical information from parents.
Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council, pointed out that the bill strips parents of their rights and endangers children. “Governor Newsom’s signing of AB 1955 is a direct assault on the safety of children and the rights of their parents. By allowing schools to withhold vital information from mothers and fathers, this bill undermines their fundamental role and places boys and girls in potential jeopardy,” he said in a statement. “Moms and dads have both a constitutional and divine mandate to guide and protect their kids, and AB 1955 egregiously violates this sacred trust.”
The Liberty Justice Center has already filed a lawsuit to challenge AB 1955. “PK-12 minor students, most of whom are too young to drive, vote or provide medical consent for themselves, are also too young to make life-altering decisions about their expressed gender identity without their parents’ knowledge. But that is precisely what AB 1955 enables—with potentially devastating consequences for children too young to fully comprehend them,” said Emily Rae, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center
Eight states—South Carolina, North Carolina, Idaho, North Dakota, Tennessee, Alabama, Iowa and Indiana—have laws protecting parents’ rights and requiring school staff to notify parents if their child identifies as a different gender at school. At least five more states are currently pursuing similar legislation.
Decision Magazine, founded by Billy Graham in 1960, works through its website and monthly magazine to inform and challenge readers about key cultural and Biblical issues.
Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
The assertion that parents and state teachers share partial ownership over children caused Ken Ham, the founder of Answers In Genesis, to pen an important article titled, “Who Owns Children?”
“Who ‘owns’ the children—parents or the government? In our day and age, many involved in western government believe it’s the government that owns kids,” he described. “Many believe they know what is best for children and think they should get to dictate what children learn—and parents are just in the way of accomplishing the state’s goals.”
“And that shouldn’t surprise us because how you answer the question of ‘Who owns the children?’ depends on your starting point and the worldview you build that’s based on that starting point,” he explained.
“If you reject God and his Word, then anything goes—there’s no absolute standard on which to base your thinking. In this view, children are just biological machines, the product of millions of years of evolution. They aren’t given to parents—they are just a ‘choice’ parents made,” Ham continued. “But when we start with God’s Word, we learn that children are a gift from God—given to parents. He has given parents authority over their children and the responsibility of training, teaching, and raising children. They are not just “choices,” nor are they the government’s responsibility—children are parent’s responsibility because God gave children to their parents to train them up for him.”
“You see, the family unit didn’t evolve. God created the family when he created marriage (Genesis 1:27 and Gen. 2:24) and told the first couple to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28),” he underscored. “He entrusted children to parents to raise them in accord with the principles he has laid down for us in his Word (e.g., Psalm 127:3).”
