California is considering a bill that would make the state a safe haven for children seeking sex changes and for parents supporting those procedures.
The bill, introduced by Democratic California State Sen. Scott Wiener, would block courts from enforcing out-of-state court orders revoking custody for parents who allowed their children to get illegal sex changes while weakening parental rights of those who aren’t supportive of sex changes for their kids.
The proposal comes as several states move to restrict “gender-affirming care,” for children, which includes socially transitioning, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries. Texas is treating these procedures as a form of child abuse under existing state laws, Alabama has banned the procedures for minors and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is making an administration-wide push to ban child sex-change procedures.
Wiener characterized the bill as an effort to grant legal protections to transgender minors and their parents, noting that the bill blocks California courts from enforcing out-of-state subpoenas for parents who break state laws banning child sex-change treatments. The legislation also makes the enforcement of out-of-state arrest warrants for violations of child sex-change bans the lowest law enforcement priority.
🧵 We’re announcing legislation to protect & grant refuge to trans kids & their parents who flee to CA from Texas, etc., in the event states try to separate these kids from their parents, criminalize the parents, or criminalize people coming to CA to receive gender-affirming care
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) March 17, 2022
A spokeswoman for parental rights group Family Watch International told the Daily Caller News Foundation how the law might work in practice. If a mother in Texas believes her daughter is actually a boy and seeks a double mastectomy for her, her doctor may alert the authorities that the child is at risk for permanently disfiguring surgery, she explained.
If the mother flees to California with the child to get the surgery, California would currently be required to comply with court orders from Texas to have the child returned to the state, according to the spokeswoman. Wiener’s bill would block California courts from complying with Texas’s child custody orders when it comes to parents giving their children sex changes, she explained.
The legislation would also weaken parental rights in some cases by expanding the circumstances in which a California court can take temporary emergency jurisdiction over a child to include instances in which a child is unable to obtain “gender-affirming care.”
“SB 107 may be the most brazen assault on fundamental parental rights in the history of this state,” said Matthew McReynolds, an attorney at the Pacific Justice Institute.
“Senate Bill 107 is an extreme over-reaction to modest efforts by other states to prevent harm to minors,” the Protect Child Health Coalition wrote in its argument opposing the bill.
“[The bill] would create a series of unprecedented and dangerous exceptions to California law and customary practice regarding cooperation with other states’ legal proceedings. For example, it would forbid the release of medical information, even in a civil or criminal proceeding and even in response to a valid subpoena,” the argument read.
For those that didn’t know, @Scott_Wiener proposed a law in California that removes parental rights in all 50 states.
California will take your kid, put them into their foster system, and allow them to receive a double mastectomy. https://t.co/3FoDMP6BFK pic.twitter.com/BcAfwNciHz
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) July 25, 2022
“California will take your kid, put them into their foster system, and allow them to receive a double mastectomy,” Florida Department of Health press secretary Jeremy Redfern wrote.
The legislation was last amended June 29 and is still in committee.
Wiener did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
