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OAN’s Roy Francis
11:30 AM – Saturday, June 10, 2023
A newly amended bill in California would treat parents’ refusal to “affirm” their children’s gender identity as a violation of health, safety, and welfare according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D-Calif.) and state Senator Scott Weiner (D-Calif.) introduced the bill which rewrites the state’s family law. The bill also classified “a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child.”
The bill, AB 957, which has passed the State Assembly, amends Section 3011 of the Family Code and in turn would require judges who are presiding over custody disputes to side with the parent who “affirms” their child’s preferred gender identity.
Opponents of the bill brought up the point that the new changes will open the door to non-affirmation being treated as abuse. Erin Friday, a San Francisco attorney who is co-leader of the parent coalition Our Duty, said that parents will now be considered abusers if they do not affirm their children’s preference.
“When you say that gender affirmation is in the child’s best interest for health, safety, and welfare, it takes nothing to say [non-affirmation] is now abuse,” Erin Said. “Because you’re not taking care of the health, safety, and welfare if you’re not affirming them.”
Due to the bill changing the definition of what “health, safety, and welfare” of children means, any institution in the state that interacts with children will now be required to affirm children’s preferred genders as well.
The newly amended bill is the latest in a number of legislation which are meant to implement left-wing gender ideology in California law. Weiner is also advancing a separate bill which would require foster parents to confirm, before they are able to adopt children, that they will affirm their foster children’s gender identity. In 2022, he also advanced a law that enshrined California as a state where out-of-state minors can receive sex changes without having to obtain consent from their parents.
The amended bill does not go into detail or define what affirmation is. It also tells California judges that anything less than affirmation by parents would be on par with history of drug and alcohol use, physical abuse, or neglect of a child.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the bill also “makes no distinctions regarding the age of a child, how long a child has identified as transgender, or affirmation of social transition versus medical sex-change treatments.”
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