California bars school districts from outing LGBTQ+ kids to their parents
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California governor Gavin Newsom has passed a bill that explicitly prohibits school districts outing LGBTQ+ students to their parents.
The Democratic governor signed the bill, known as the Safety Act, on Monday (15 July) to prevent schools creating policies that could potentially out LGBTQ+ students by telling their parents about a name change, pronoun change, or their identity, the Los Angeles Blade reported.
Speaking last month, assembly member Chris Ward, who proposed the bill, said: “This comes from a growing national attack on LGBTQ+ people and in particular transgender individuals, with several California school districts and other states enacting policies that explicitly compel teachers to tell parents that their child identifies as transgender.
“Forced outing policies harm everyone: parents, families and school staff, by unnecessarily compelling the staff to involve themselves in family matters and removing the opportunity for families to build trust and have conversations on their own terms.”
Speaking to the Los Angeles Blade about the new law, middle-school teacher Amanda Estrada said the legislation gave them “peace of mind” in the face of “homophobic and transphobic rhetoric across the state”, adding: “As a non-binary educator, I feel relieved to have some solid protection at the state level, and I feel empowered to continue advocating for my LGBTQ+ students.”
Laws outing students ‘dangerous’
The law comes as eight states across the US, including Alabama, Tennessee and Idaho, have put legislation into place that would force schools to out trans youth to their parents, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
Last year, the Chino Valley Unified School District, in California’s San Bernardino County, came under fire for its policy of notifying parents if a student asked to change their name or pronouns at school. The policy was blocked by a judge, with the state justice department going on to sue the district.
Similar laws are not limited to the US, with the former Conservative government in the UK releasing guidance in 2023 that would force teachers to out trans, non-binary and gender-non-conforming pupils to their parents.
Matt Adams, a head of department at a West London state school, told PinkNews at the time: “Teachers and schools do not have all the information about every child’s home environment and instead of supporting a pupil to be themselves in school, we could be putting them at risk of harm.
“It’s dangerous behaviour. It’s not solving a problem, it’s creating a problem.”
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