NOM Goes After Transgender Students Rights Law

The National Organization for Marriage is behind an effort to repeal a law in California that allows transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity while at school.

The organization is planning for a ballot initiative in November 2014 to repeal the law through a voter initiative, just as Proposition 8 repealed the marriage rights of California's same-sex couples in 2008.

NOM President Brian Brown said the transgender rights law was "a horrible attempt by activists to strip society of all gender roles and uses children as a weapon in their culture war." He added, "They are forcing our school children to be exposed in showers and bathrooms to members of the opposite sex who claim a 'gender identity' with that sex. This new law doesn't prevent bullying - it is bullying. It is not about protecting kids; it damages kids."

NOM is working with Capitol Resource Institute, a California-based conservative organization, to launch the effort toward gathering a required 504,760 signatures.

Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, called NOM a hate group, and said the attempt to repeal this law was "shameful."

Minter told the Los Angeles Times that repealing the law would not change the state's obligation to protect transgender students.