Last two weeks in LGBTQ+ news: California attorney general investigating anti-trans policy

This series is a weekly roundup of LGBTQ-related news, covering various laws and bans, as well as efforts to push back against them.

California attorney general opens investigation into school policy to out trans students, denounces another for same policy

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has opened a civil rights investigation into a school district’s policy that he says requires district staff to out LGBTQ+ students.

Bonta’s office announced the investigation in a statement Aug. 4.

The Chino Valley Unified School District enacted a policy in July that requires principals, staff and counselors to report to parents within three days of their child requesting to use a name other than their legal one or to be identified as a gender other than the one listed on their birth certificate or other official documents, or to access sex-segregated programs and activities that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.

In a statement, Bonta’s office said the Chino Valley Unified School District requires parents to be contacted in such circumstances “even if such disclosure is against the student’s wishes or could expose a student to parental abuse or increase their risk of self-harm or suicide.”

“Students should never fear going to school for simply being who they are,” said Bonta. “Chino Valley Unified’s forced outing policy threatens the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students vulnerable to harassment and potential abuse from peers and family members unaccepting of their gender identity. Today’s announcement stresses our commitment to challenging school policies that target and seek to discriminate against California’s most vulnerable communities. California will not stand for violations of our students’ civil rights.”

Weeks after Chino Valley’s decision, the Murrieta Valley Unified School District about 50 miles to the south enacted a similar policy on Aug. 10.

Bonta denounced that policy as well.

“I am 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,” Bonta said in another statement. “My office remains committed to ensuring school policies do not target or seek to discriminate against California’s most vulnerable communities. California will not stand for violations of our students’ civil rights.”

Chino Valley Unified and Murrieta Valley Unified are not the only school districts to enact such a policy. A school district in New Jersey made headlines in May when it adopted a similar one. Some Florida schools, though they stop short of outing trans students, now require a parental permission slip to call students by anything other than their legal name. At the state level, Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law includes parental notification requirements that the Trevor Project told NPR last year could require teachers to out students, and Virginia’s new trans student model policies require schools to get parental permission for staff to call students by a name or gender that is not on their birth certificate or other official documentation.

Florida reverses itself on high school AP course banned for sex and gender content

The Florida Department of Education appears to have reversed a decision that the College Board had said was a ban on Advanced Placement psychology classes in the state’s high schools.

The College Board, which administers AP tests throughout the country, issued a statement on Aug. 3 saying that the department’s guidance for school superintendents, which says that said teaching content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal, “effectively banned” AP psychology classes. It said its AP psychology course requires students to describe how gender and sex influence socialization and other aspects of psychological development.

“This element of the framework is not new: gender and sexual orientation have been part of AP Psychology since the course launched 30 years ago,” the College Board said.

AP psychology was the fifth most popular AP class in Florida in 2021, according to data on the state Department of Education’s website.

Florida quickly changed direction after the College Board’s statement; the Department of Education issued a letter to superintendents clarifying that Florida schools can teach the class.

“In fact, the Department believes that AP Psychology can be taught in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate and the course remains listed in our course catalog,” Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. wrote in the Aug. 4 letter, which was obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat.

Texas is sued over ‘drag ban’

The state of Texas has been slapped with a lawsuit challenging the state’s “drag ban” law.

Represented by the ACLU of Texas, multiple Texas LGBTQ+ groups and an Austin drag queen filed the lawsuit Aug. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.The lawsuit accuses Texas of unconstitutionally singling out drag performances in S.B. 12, which was enacted in June.

S.B. 12 bans “sexually oriented performances” in the presence of anyone under the age of 18 on public or commercial property. Among the criteria for determining whether a performance is banned under the law is whether the performance “appeals to the prurient interest in sex.”

“In its zeal to target drag, the Legislature passed a bill so yawning in scope that it criminalizes and restricts an enormous swath of constitutionally protected activity, including theater, ballet, comedy and even cheerleading,” the lawsuit says. “By enacting this law, the state has threatened the livelihood and free expression of many Texans, including drag performers across our state.”

The law is set to go into effect Sept. 1.

Oregon clinic is shut down by bomb threat

A bomb threat shut down a health clinic at an Oregon university after a patient alleged the clinic had dropped her due to statements she made against the trans community.

Employees were evacuated Aug. 4 from Oregon Health and Science University’s Richmond Family Health Center, which was closed throughout the day due to the threat. The union representing the clinic’s employees ascribed the incident to a story posted on an anti-transgender news site about the patient’s allegations, according to reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The patient claimed she first wrote a message to her doctor criticizing the display of a trans pride flag in the clinic, then had a phone call with a receptionist in which she made comments that she believes were among the “transphobic remarks” cited in a letter she later received informing her that the clinic was dropping her as a patient.Far-right social media accounts amplified the story, including the Libs of TikTok account on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, which has been blamed for inciting episodes of harassment against children’s hospitals that provide gender-affirming care. Libs of TikTok tweeted about the allegations against the Richmond Family Health Center the day before the bomb threat.

The clinic’s website states it offers “gender-affirming primary care.”

“Richmond employees have endured countless threats of harm, racial slurs, anti-LGBTQIA+ hate speech and more, with little to no recourse,” said an email from AFSCME union chapter president Michael Stewart, which was obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting. “As one person put it, ‘Richmond staff have been sharing that they’re worried something like this would happen for a long time now, and now their fears and suspicions have been confirmed.’”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.