PRIDE2023

This year, the Bay Area Reporter will be publishing five distinct Pride-themed issues –June 1, 8, 15, and 22, and a special “Pride in Review” edition on June 29.

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profile, leading to an ongoing, protracted fight with The Walt Disney Co. – the state’s largest private employer – after it expressed disapproval.

The law’s vagueness represents a considerable prior restraint, Boso said. Lawyers advised school administrators in Florida’s Orange County against allowing teachers to place photographs of their same-sex partners at their desks, and against wearing rainbow articles of clothing, according to The Hill .

“People don’t know what they can or can’t say about their own partners, or if a child comes out to them in their capacity as a teacher,” he said. “I think that’s part of the point.”

Don Hayden, a gay Florida attorney, and a partner at Mark Migdal and Hayden, agreed.

“So, senior year in high school you can’t talk about gay issues,” Hayden said, referring to the Florida Board of Educa-

From page 1 schools and foster youth. Several relate to protecting HIV prevention efforts.

Another closely watched bill is Assembly Bill 5, the Safe and Supportive Schools Act, authored by gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-West Hollywood). It would mandate that teachers and credentialed staff who serve public school pupils in grades seven to 12 take an online training course in LGBTQ cultural competency when it goes live in two years.

As the Bay Area Reporter’s online Political Notes column reported in early May, Zbur amended the bill so it mandates one hour of training annually for middle and high school teachers and certified staff. Initially, the bill had called for the covered school employees to do four hours of LGBTQ cultural competency training every three years.

A bill that called for creating the training became law in 2019, but the necessary funding for it wasn’t allocated until 2021. The California Department of Education had said last year it would debut during Pride Month in 2024, but it has since sought an extension until June 30, 2025 “due to delays in establishing the necessary contracts,” according to a legislative analysis done on Zbur’s bill.

The Office of Legislative Counsel keyed the bill “as a possible statemandated local program,” though it is unclear what the cost to implement it would be if AB 5 becomes law. One of the state’s major unions has made its passage a top priority this year and hailed its advancing out of the state Assembly by a 64-4 vote May 22, which California celebrates as Harvey Milk Day in honor of the late gay San Francisco supervisor.

“AB 5 is a key plank in SEIU members’ justice agenda this year because we believe every child deserves the right to learn while feeling safe and accepted,” stated Max Arias, Service Employees International Union Local 99 executive director and member of the executive board of SEIU California.

Another bill aimed at protecting LGBTQ students, especially those who are transgender or gender-nonconforming, is Senate Bill 857 by gay state Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz). It would require the state’s superintendent of public instruction to convene a task force on the needs of LGBTQ+ pupil needs by July 1, 2024.

According to the bill, the advisory body would be tasked with assisting in the implementation of supportive policies and initiatives to address LGBTQ+ pupil education. It would be required by January 1, 2026, to report on its findings and recommendations to the Legislature, the superintendent, and the governor.

As the B.A.R. has reported, a report card on LGBTQ school issues now twice issued by the Equality California Institute, most recently in 2022, has found tion’s recent expansion of the Don’t Say Gay. “Makes it difficult for a gay teacher to talk to his students.”

Nonetheless, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee threw out a lawsuit in February, saying the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue because the law had not been enforced against them.

The plaintiffs have appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A similar suit in Orlando was dismissed last fall.

“We’re in a very different time down here,” Hayden told the B.A.R. “It’s a sorry state; I hate to say it. We are not even a purple state – we are a red, red state.”

‘He’ll trample on anyone’

DeSantis first won the governorship in 2018 by less than half a percentage point against Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum, who subsequently faced a corruption trial in which the jury was hung on most charges, which were subsequently dropped.

Gillum, who is married, came out as bisexual in 2020, six months after being found inebriated by police in a Miami Beach hotel with a male sex worker.

DeSantis, 44, a Republican former congressmember, became a national figure with his more laissez-faire approach to COVID-19 restrictions during the height of the pandemic. According to the U.S. Census, Florida is No. 1 in net migration. A Democratic voter registra- they “promise to affirm, encourage, and praise the chosen gender identity and sexual orientation of a foster child, no matter how young, and be able to cooperate in the medical transitioning of that child with drugs and surgeries.” tion edge has been flipped to a 330,000 GOP advantage, and DeSantis beat former Republican Governor Charlie Crist (who previously changed parties and was running as a Democrat) in last year’s governor’s race by 19 points – including with a victory in historically liberal Miami-Dade County.

Advocates for SB 407 counter that LGBTQ youth need to be protected from abuse in the state-funded foster care system, particularly at a time when LGBTQ youth are confronted with vitriol on social media platforms stemming from other state legislatures rolling back their rights.

Democrats “didn’t get the vote out, [and] didn’t have the right candidates,” Hayden said.

Hayden said the rest of the country needs to take heed at DeSantis’ consolidation of power.

“He’s been able to create, with the supermajority in the Legislature, he’s been able to create and provoke fear and headlines – what he wants for his presidential bid,” he said.

“He’ll trample on anyone to get the attention of the base he’s trying to attract, and that includes trans youth, it includes drag queens, it includes gay teachers, it includes kids who feel afraid to even talk about their sexuality to their teachers or to their peers,” Hayden added. “And he doesn’t care. In his mind, he doesn’t think we have the same rights as everyone else. Be aware, because what I’ve seen [are] over 300 bills around the country that are copycat bills of what we’ve seen in Florida.”

University of San Francisco’s Boso said that there’s no guarantee that present court interpretations of the Constitution will hold, either.

“In the same way we saw Dobbs last summer, many people were surprised,” Boso said, referring to the Supreme Court decision that eliminated abortion as a constitutional right. “Folks who study constitutional law saw the writing on the wall. This is a very different court.

A 6-3 conservative majority does have the power to reinterpret or overrule or disregard past precedent, so I do suspect that’s one of the hopes.”

DeSantis’ press office did not respond to a request for comment for this report. t intersex community, including, but not limited to, information relating to medical care, mental health disparities, and population size. It is awaiting a final vote in the Assembly.

Also yet to pass out of the Assembly is AB 1487 by Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles). It aims to establish the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Wellness Reentry Fund to provide grants for reentry programming “specifically to support transgender, gender variant, and intersex people who have experienced carceral systems.” lackluster results among the state’s public school districts. Laird partnered with the California Association of Student Councils on SB 857 with an eye toward seeing better results on the report cards, which should be released by EQCA every two years.

The Senate passed the bill by a 35-0 vote May 15.

“SB 857 is an important opportunity to empower the growing community of LGBTQ+ students, ensure the enforcement and implementation of existing laws, and work to address the real needs of all California students,” stated the student council group.

The Assembly voted 62-16 Tuesday, May 30, to advance AB 1078 by gay Assemblymember Corey Jackson, Ph.D., (D-Riverside) that would ensure school districts in California are using instructional materials inclusive of the role and contributions made by Latino Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans, and members of other religions and socioeconomic groups to the “total development” of the state and the country. It comes amid school districts and state lawmakers across the country banning books and school curriculums that touch on topics about race, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

“We must strive to create a more equitable and inclusive education system for all students. This bill will ensure that students in California receive a comprehensive education that celebrates the diversity of our state and promotes a sense of belonging in the classroom,” stated Jackson.

Youth bills

After what his office described as “an emotional exchange on the Senate floor”

May 24, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) saw his SB 407 pass by a 30-9 vote. The bill directs the state’s Department of Social Services to amend the foster care vetting process to ensure LGBTQ foster youth, who account for more than 30% of all youth in the foster care system, are not placed in hostile foster homes.

Conservative groups like the California Family Council have attacked the bill as an attempt to “weed out” Christians from being foster parents unless

“While red states are stoking fear about LGBTQ youth to justify rolling back civil rights, California is expanding protections for our most vulnerable children,” stated Wiener. “In California we believe that every child deserves to feel safe and affirmed at home, regardless of their identity. It’s imperative that we support this value in the state-funded foster care system, where LGBTQ youth are over-represented.”

Other bills aim to protect the privacy of transgender youth in California. AB 223 by gay Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) would require the courts to seal any petition for a change of gender or sex identifier filed by a minor. It passed out of the Assembly 63-0 back in March and is awaiting a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Also before the Senate committee is AB 957 by Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), dubbed the TGI (Transgender, Gender-Diverse, and Intersex) Youth Empowerment Act. It would allow courts to consider a parent’s affirmation of their child’s gender identity when making decisions about visitation and custody.

The bill would also require courts to strongly consider that affirming a child’s gender identity is in the best interest of the child when one parent does not consent to a minor’s legal name change to conform with the minor’s gender identity. It passed out of the Assembly 51-13 at the end of March.

“As the mother of a trans child, it is jarring to know that TGI youth are at a higher risk of depression, mental health crises, self-harm and suicide than their cisgender peers,” stated Wilson.

Along with lesbian Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona), Wilson is also pushing for passage this year AB 760, which sailed out of the Assembly May 8 on a 58-0 vote. It would require the California State University system by the 2024–25 academic year to have campus systems that are “fully capable” of allowing current students, staff, or faculty to declare an affirmed name, gender, or both name and gender identification.

It also would require the state universities to update certain records with such information at the request of an individual. A bill adopted in 2021 prohibited California public universities from deadnaming trans and nonbinary students – that is using their former names they were given based on the sex they were assigned at birth – on their diplomas and academic records.

As the B.A.R. has previously reported, the University of California system had released in late 2020 a new policy on gender identity that all of its campuses must implement by the end of this year.

AB 760 would “request” that the UC schools enact the same policies as the bill would require of the CSU campuses.

Still awaiting a final vote in the Senate is SB 760 by state Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), which would require all K-12 schools in California to provide at least one accessible all-gender restroom for students “to use safely and comfortably during school hours.” It is believed to be “first-of-its-kind” legislation, according to LGBTQ advocates, and passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 5-1 vote May 18.

Related legislation by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), AB 783, would require cities to notify all business license applicants that singleuser restrooms in any business, place of public accommodation, or government agency must be identified as all-gender restrooms. Under a previous bill that took effect in 2017, the state has required establishments with single-occupancy restrooms to mark them as being gender-neutral.

It passed out of the Assembly 64-9 in late April. The Senate Governance and Finance Committee will now take it up.

Several other bills relate to gender identity issues. SB 372 by lesbian state Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) would ensure that the public records kept by the state’s Department of Consumer Affairs don’t use the deadnames or disclose the home addresses of licensed mental health professionals. It passed out of the Senate 33-4 on May 22.

Meanwhile, AB 1163 by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-Arleta) would require various state agencies and departments to revise their public-use forms, by January 1, 2025, to be more inclusive of individuals who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, or intersex. It would also require the impacted agencies and departments to collect data pertaining to the specific needs of the transgender, gender nonconforming, or

It includes no funding, though the bill’s backers would like to secure at least $5 million for it. It mirrors the state fund Santiago pushed to create that pays for trans health care services several years ago, which Newsom appropriated $13 million for in 2021.

Bills tackling LGBTQ health care issues

California lawmakers are also moving forward several bills supportive of LGBTQ health care services. For example, Atkins’ SB 487 would ensure that a health insurer, or health care service plan, doesn’t penalize a licensed California health care provider who performs gender-affirming care services.

It also protects abortion providers. The Senate passed it May 24 on a 31-8 vote.

“With patients coming to California for abortions and medical care that is restricted or limited in other states, providers are currently putting themselves at risk by performing those services both here, and when they travel to other states to make abortion care accessible,” stated Atkins. “The least we can do is ensure they are protected and able to provide this care in California, where it is legal.”

In a similar vein, AB 1432 by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) would close loopholes in existing law to ensure that health insurance policies provided to Californians by out-of-state employers with out-of-state insurance contracts include coverage for abortion and gender-affirming care. Menjivar’s SB 729 would require health plans to provide coverage for fertility care, including treatment for infertility and in vitro fertilization, and ensure that LGBTQ+ people are not excluded from such coverage.

Carrillo’s bill was sent to the Senate May 18 on a 61-13 vote. The Senate passed Menjivar’s legislation 30-3 on May 24.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (DOakland) has authored two bills this session to further protect paid leave provisions for LGBTQ people and others who need to care for their chosen family members, i.e., people they are not related to but have close bonds with and care for when they are sick. Her AB 518 by would give workers the right to receive Paid Family Leave wage replacement benefits while on leave to assist their chosen family.

Wicks’ AB 524 would make it unlaw-