An entire month of “pride” celebrations is seemingly not enough for California.
On Friday, the California Assembly voted to declare August “Transgender History Month” starting in 2024 as part of an effort to push back against legislation in Republican-controlled states they claim have targeted the “human and civil rights” of the transgender community.
“The move comes as over 500 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in State Legislatures across the country with the majority targeting the human and civil rights of transgender people,” the Assembly said in a news release.
The statement also spoke of the legislators’ desire to push back against the supposed myth that transgender people have only existed over the past few decades.
“A common message spread by anti-trans legislators is that trans people are somehow new, and that being transgender is a modern invention,” it said.
“Scholars and historians have confirmed that gender-nonconforming and trans people exist in historic written records dating back to antiquity,” it continued. “California in particular has a rich and documented transgender history going back to the Spanish colonial era.”
California declares August “Transgender History Month” starting in 2024.
California’s State Assembly has voted in favor of House Resolution 57, establishing that August will be recognized as Transgender History Month. It is the first state to honor “trans history” with the… pic.twitter.com/zT6mdjidLa
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 8, 2023
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco, also explained how “trans people have always existed.”
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“In every era and in every culture they have existed,” Haney explained. “As long as there’s been the written word there has been a record of trans people. Ancient Egypt, the Romans, China, Native Americans — the history of transgender people is there if you look for it.”
Among those expressing opposition to the move were members of the Christian community.
Paul Chappell, Senior Pastor, Lancaster Baptist Church | President, West Coast Baptist College, commented on social media that “This is the sick agenda of Gavin Newsom and he wants to take it nationwide.”
Chappell recommended that “Every Californian who professes a relationship with Christ should contact their state senator & demand schools stick with reading and writing. These laws are brainwashing children.”
This is the sick agenda of Gavin Newsom and he wants to take it nationwide. Every Californian who professes a relationship with Christ should contact their state senator & demand schools stick with reading and writing. These laws are brainwashing children. https://t.co/rAuWadkU7W
— Paul Chappell (@PaulChappell) September 8, 2023
Another social media user posted on X that the legislature’s decision is a sign that “California has surely gone down the s***ter!”
The comment continued, “‘Transgender history month’? The Commiefornia state government is seriously going to make a month honoring people who cannot even accept the gender they were born as? Homelessness is rampant in Commiefornia yet THIS…is what their government is focused on? This is what happens when a group of people who should desperately be seeking mental counseling are allowed to be installed in positions of governance.”
California is notorious for its ultra-progressive attitudes toward transgender rights, which includes passing legislation aimed at punishing parents who refuse to affirm their child’s “self-identified” gender.
A California bill AB957 was just amended to add “a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity” as part of the “health, safety, and welfare of the child” in the state’s Family Code.
If parents disapprove of their child’s gender transition, and say a teacher or lgbt… pic.twitter.com/YyaHLoSHFk
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 9, 2023
Last year, the California Assembly passed a similar bill making the state a “refuge” for transgender children and their families by directing law enforcement not to cooperate with other state’s efforts to prosecute parents alleged to have violated local child protection laws.
