California Democrats in the State Assembly and State Senate have advanced legislation that would make the state a sanctuary where out-of-state parents can take their children to undergo sex change procedures.
On Monday, the legislative body passed Senate Bill (SB) 107 along party lines, with all 19 Republican assemblymembers voting against it and 60 Democrats supporting it. State Senator Scott Weiner introduced the bill, and a release from his office asserted it would “provide refuge for trans kids and their families.”
On Wednesday, Weiner announced it had passed the State Senate and “was on its way to” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) office. It passed the senate by a 30-9 margin, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Our trans state of refuge bill is on its way to the Governor after just receiving final Senate approval!
SB 107 sends a crystal clear message to the nation that no matter what vile anti-LGBTQ hate laws right-wing politicians think of, California will stand with our community.
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) August 31, 2022
“California must stand with LGBTQ kids and their families, especially when they’re under attack across the country,” said the Democrat senator in the release, adding:
SB 107 ensures that California is a refuge state for trans kids and their parents, so they can be safe here. Parents should never be separated from their kids or criminalized for simply allowing them to be who they are. We need to hold firm in our support for the LGBTQ community and stand with LGBTQ youth.
The legislation would shield parents who take their children to California for sex-changing procedures from prosecution and criminal penalties in their home states where such practices are illegal. It aims to:
- “prohibit a provider of health care, a health care service plan, or a contractor from releasing medical information related to a person or entity allowing a child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care in response to a criminal or civil action, including a foreign subpoena, based on another state’s law that authorizes a person to bring a civil or criminal action against a person or entity that allows a child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care.”
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“prohibit law enforcement agencies from knowingly making or participating in the arrest or extradition of an individual pursuant to an out-of-state arrest warrant based on another state’s law against providing, receiving, or allowing a child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care in this state, as specified.”
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“prohibit the enforcement of an order based on another state’s law authorizing a child to be removed from their parent or guardian based on that parent or guardian allowing their child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care.”
- “prohibit a court from finding that it is an inconvenient forum where the law or policy of another state that may take jurisdiction limits the ability of a parent to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care, as defined, and the provision of such care is at issue in the case before the court.”
It comes as a response to Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) February order to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate certain sex change procedures on children as child abuse, Weiner’s office noted. The directive was issued after the Office of the Attorney General in Texas determined that “a number of so-called ‘sex change’ procedures constitute child abuse under existing Texas law,” as Abbott wrote in his letter to the DFPS.
Abbott stated that Texas law opens up “all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers,” to “criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse.”
“Texas law also imposes a duty on DFPS to investigate the parents of a child who is subjected to these abusive gender-transitioning procedures, and on other state agencies to investigate licensed facilities where such procedures may occur,” he added.
His directive has temporarily been blocked, as Fox News noted.
The California bill has advanced despite outcry from a 17-year-old girl named Chloe Cole. The teen underwent sex-change procedures, including a double mastectomy, but now regrets her decision. She testified before the assembly in June, as late Breitbart News reporter Penny Starr wrote:
At 15, Cole asked to have her breasts removed. She attended a class with other teen girls who said they wanted to be boys.
“None of us were going to be men,” Cole said. “We were fleeing from the uncomfortable feeling of becoming women.”
“I was unknowingly physically cutting off my true self from my body irreversibly and painfully. … Our trans identities were not questioned,” she said.
Chloe Cole @puddingpandan, is an incredibly courageous 17-year-old who testified today in Sacramento against Scott Wiener’s so-called “Gender-affirming health care” S.B. 107
Absolutely everyone needs to hear her story of detransitioning.
Chloe is a hero. https://t.co/4XdDCNMlfI pic.twitter.com/3co1rma5Mh
— Kelly S. (@kellyske) June 28, 2022
Cole told the assembly that she “will never be able to breastfeed a child” and that she does “not yet know if [she is] capable of carrying a child to full term.”
