California bans forced outing of LGBTQ+ students as Gov. Gavin Newsom signs landmark law

California has enacted a landmark law banning schools from outing LGBTQ+ students to their parents or guardians, becoming the first state to ban forced outing.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1955 on Monday, officially prohibiting schools from disclosing a student's gender identity or sexuality to their guardians without the student's permission. The law will also require the California Department of Education to provide families with resources on how to “manage conversations about gender and identity privately.”

The bill's passage comes in response to a number of conservative districts in the state that have instead enacted policies forcing school staff to disclose a student's gender identity to their guardians if it does not match their sex at birth. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit last year against one such district, the Chino Valley Unified School District, asserting that its forced outing policy and those like it put transgender students “in danger of imminent, irreparable harm."

Eight states currently have laws mandating the forced outing of transgender youth in schools, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which include Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Tennessee. Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Montana, and Utah all encourage outing, though it is not state law. California is the first and only state to outlaw forced outing.

Assemblymember Chris Ward, who authored the bill, said via the Los Angeles Times that the law ensures teachers will not be made into “the gender police” and that it respects the relationship between parent and child instead of superseding it.

“Politically motivated attacks on the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ youth are on the rise nationwide, including in California,” Ward said. “As a parent, I urge all parents to talk to their children, listen to them, and love them unconditionally for who they are.”