Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill Thursday making California a sanctuary state for children to obtain “gender-affirming” surgery or drugs.
The bill, SB 107, was sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who also sponsored a law in 2020 that reduced penalties for adults who had oral or anal sex with a willing minor child within ten years of their age by removing a requirement that they register as sex offenders, leaving that to judges’ discretion. The law ostensibly addressed discrimination against LGBTQ people.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, discusses his proposed measure to provide legal refuge to displaced transgender youth and their families during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., March 17, 2022. Democratic lawmakers in more than a dozen states are following California’s lead in seeking to offer legal refuge to displaced transgender youth and their families. The coordinated effort being announced Tuesday, May 3, by the LGBTQ Victory Institute and other advocates comes in response to recent actions taken in conservative states. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
SB 107 “would prohibit a provider of health care, a health care service plan, or a contractor from releasing medical information related to a person or entity allowing a child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care in response to a criminal or civil action” from another state that bans transgender surgery or drugs for minor children under 18. It would also prohibit California police from enforcing arrest warrants for transgender treatments for minors that are illegal in their own states.
The bill would also “prohibit the enforcement of an order based on another state’s law authorizing a child to be removed from their parent or guardian based on that parent or guardian allowing their child to receive gender-affirming health care” in California.
In a signing statement, Newsom described SB 107 as a bill about “parental choice.” However, there is nothing in the bill that requires that the “gender-affirming health care” be performed with parental consent. It also does not specify a minimum age at which a child qualifies for surgery or pharmaceuticals that would cause potentially irreversible physical changes to genitals or other organs.
The Los Angeles Times noted: “Whether SB 107 itself will be upheld in court is also in question because of federal requirements that states must recognize out-of-state laws when residents travel.” It also quoted State Sen. Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), who pointed out that California would be in a difficult position if one parent supported a child’s transgender surgery and the other parent opposed it.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.