Less than 2% of American teens identify as transgender. It would be safe to assume that many of them tell their parents sooner or later; if they want any kind of medical or surgical intervention, they need parental consent. Others simply feel a strong enough bond with their parents to share what they are going through and seek support.
The rest — transgender students who are unwilling to tell their parents, sometimes with very good reason — are a small portion of the student population. Yet in some parts of California with little information, one might think that transgender secrecy is as vital an issue for public education as illiteracy.
Some school districts violated state rules by passing requirements for teachers and other school staff to inform parents about their children’s gender identity changes, such as using different names or pronouns. The Legislature decided to end any attempts to intimidate students and school employees. In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1955, which allows staff to keep student records on such matters confidential.
You'd think school districts would just drop the issue and get on with education. That's apparently what the public wants. In two of those districts (Orange and Temecula Valley Unified), board members who opposed transgender people were recalled by voters in June.
But another transgender-obsessed school board, Chino Valley Unified, is suing the state over that law. And now, the Huntington Beach City Council, no stranger to bizarre municipal politics, has waded into this culture war issue with a proposal to become a “parents’ right to know” city.
The City Council spent more than four hours on Tuesday on the issue, giving the floor to sometimes scathing speakers (many of whom may not even be city residents) with opinions on something that will have no effect. In the end, the council's conservative majority voted to move forward with the ordinance.
The exact scope of the ordinance the city council plans to pass is unclear, but the idea is to require teachers to inform parents if their children change their gender identity. It's unclear whether it would have any effect because the city has no jurisdiction over how schools are run. A city law wouldn't go very far if it prohibited teachers from teaching algebra, for example.
Of course, in real life, many parents know this, because they are the kind of parents whose children feel comfortable telling them important things. And parents whose children are afraid to tell them for fear of rejection, or verbal or even physical abuse, are not going to change their children's gender identity as a result. The students will simply keep it a secret from all adults and isolate themselves even further, sometimes dangerously.
“The governor can raise his kids however he wants,” Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark said in an interview. “I’ll raise my kids however I want… He needs to keep his nose out of our business.”
But it is Van Der Mark — who was also the driving force behind a new public library policy that will have a panel of people who may not have knowledge of libraries or literature decide what books the city library can buy — who is pushing her beliefs into areas where they don’t belong. The City Council doesn’t run the schools, school districts do (some districts serve students from Huntington Beach). And teachers have enough on their plate. It’s not their job to meddle in potentially sensitive family matters.
Couldn't the city do better, like offer recreation and mental health programs that create strong, positive bonds between teens and their parents, so that kids feel safe sharing what's on their minds? Or maybe even ensure that its residents have access to books that city librarians deem valuable?
