A California school district has passed a policy that would require teachers to out trans and gender-nonconforming students to their parents, even though the state has already warned that such policies are likely illegal.
The Murrieta Valley Unified School District (MVUSD) board voted 3-2 on the policy at a meeting last Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times. The policy mandates that school personnel provide written notice to parents within three days of a student showing any indication of being transgender or gender nonconforming. This includes a student going by a different name and/or pronouns or using a bathroom or playing on a sports team that does not align with the student’s “biological sex.” This makes the district the second in the Inland Empire, a metropolitan region east of Los Angeles, to pass such a policy; the Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) passed its own version in July.
California state officials immediately voiced their opposition to the policy. The same day that the MVUSD meeting took place, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond sent a letter to the district and the superintendent, requesting the policy be withdrawn and asking the board to “reconsider this misguided approach.”
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“Unfortunately, many LGBTQ+ students are in situations where they could encounter harm or abuse even in their own homes if their sexual orientation or gender identity is disclosed before they are ready,” Thurmond wrote in the letter, adding that nearly half of LGBTQ+ students in California have considered suicide. Thurmond also alluded to the fact that the California Attorney General’s Office has opened a civil rights investigation into the policy adopted in Chino Valley.
“I urge you to protect and preserve the well-being of your students and prevent your district from experiencing any unnecessary potential liability or scrutiny,” the State Superintendent said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a statement that same Friday, stating that he was “deeply disturbed to learn another school district has put at risk the safety and privacy of transgender and gender nonconforming students by adopting a forced outing policy.” He did not, however, specify if his office would pursue a separate investigation into the Murietta Valley policy.
The policy has even made its way to Governor Gavin Newsom, who said in a Monday press conference that he was “working with legislative leaders” regarding the policies, per the Daily Bulletin. Newsom’s office declined to elaborate on the specifics. However, last month, the governor threatened to fine the Temecula Valley Unified School District $1.5 million for voting against curriculum that discussed Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. The district ended up adopting the curriculum.
Although California is often seen as a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people, the state certainly has its own pockets of conservatism, as these policies show. The LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Equality California spoke out against the policy last Thursday, tweeting, “We must protect LGBTQ+ students from dangerous policies that seek to put them in harm’s way.”
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Still, some states have gone so far as to pass “forced outing” legislation at the state level, namely North Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, and Alabama, per the Movement Advancement Project. Other states that promote (but don’t require) outing of trans students include Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, Kentucky, and Florida, meaning that outing is encouraged in legislation either implicitly or explicitly.
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