Parent Group Sues California Dem AG Over How He Described Their Transgender Ballot Initiative

 A parental rights group is suing the California attorney general over the way he characterized their proposed transgender ballot initiative.

A group called Protect Kids California filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) last week. The group held a press conference on the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento to announce the suit.

The problems started back in August when the group launched a push for a ballot initiative that would crack down on child gender transitions.

Bonta quickly slammed the effort and dubbed it the “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth” initiative in the official summary his office released. 

This caused problems for Protect Kids California, the group said.

One of the co-founders of the group, Roseville school board member Jonathan Zachreson, said they received feedback from supporters who were confused by the attorney general’s title and description, which appear on the petition supporters must sign to get the initiative on the ballot.

“A lot of the feedback is ‘Why did you write the initiative this way?’ and they’re focused on the title and summary and we’re like ‘Well, we didn’t write it. That was Attorney General Rob Bonta,” Zachreson told Capital Public Radio.

“While we do feel like it’s going well, it definitely has an interfering effect on the process as well as from a donor perspective as well as for the signature gathering effort,” Zachreson said.

Bonta’s office said they could not comment on the initiative itself but said they take the responsibility of complying with procedure when issuing titles and summaries “very seriously.”

 

The ballot initiative essentially has three parts. 

The initiative would ban puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender surgeries on minors and discipline any violating doctor. It would also repeal the California law that allows biological males to compete in girls’ sports and use the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Finally, the initiative would prohibit schools from keeping a child’s new gender identity secret from their parents.

Protect Kids California has to get more than 546,000 signatures from registered voters for the measure to be eligible for the ballot. They must submit these signatures to election officials by May 28.

Despite California’s Democratic leadership, there is momentum across the state on parental rights issues, particularly gender identity issues.

At least seven school districts in California have adopted policies banning schools from hiding children’s new gender identities from parents. Some of those districts have clashed with the attorney general, who has slammed the new policies as “forced outing” policies.