'Incredible victory': Federal judge prohibits trans-related grooming efforts in California schools

Democrat policies proudly championed in California by Gov. Gavin Newsom have for years kept parents in the dark about their children's mental health and personal circumstances — particularly about whether their kids are masquerading as members of the opposite sex at school and undergoing a so-called "social transition" with the help of school staff.

Unwilling to lie to parents in violation of their faith and ethics, and facing the prospect of retaliation or dismissal over their dissent, Christian educators Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori West filed a lawsuit in 2023 with the help of the religious liberty group the Thomas More Society.

By October, their legal challenge targeting secretive, grooming transgender policies across the state had evolved into a class-action lawsuit involving other adversely impacted teachers as well as parents.

U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez delivered Democrat officials and other gender ideologues a big upset on Monday, ruling in favor of the plaintiffs and against the grooming regime.

Benitez noted at the outset of his 52-page ruling that long before the advent of compulsory education in the U.S., "parents have carried out their rights and responsibility to direct the general and medical care and religious upbringing of their child."

"It is a right and a responsibility that parents still hold," said the judge.

Benitez affirmed that "parents have a right to receive gender information and teachers have a right to provide to parents accurate information about a child's gender identity" — rights that Benitez confirmed have been violated by California officials.

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Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Image

According to Benitez, "the parental exclusion policies create a trifecta of harm." For starters,

they harm the child who needs parental guidance and possibly mental health intervention to determine if the incongruence is organic or whether it is the result of bullying, peer pressure, or a fleeting impulse. They harm the parents by depriving them of the long-recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide, and make healthcare decisions for their children, and by substantially burdening many parents’ First Amendment right to train their children in their sincerely held religious beliefs. And finally, they harm teachers who are compelled to violate the [sic] sincerely held beliefs and the parent’s rights by forcing them to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students.

Benitez barred California Attorney General Rob Bonta, California Superintendent Tony Thurmond, and members of the California Board of Education from implementing or enforcing laws or policies in such a manner as to permit or require any employee in the state education system to:

• mislead the parent or guardian of a minor student "about their child's gender presentation at school" by way of direct lies, denial of access to educational records, or "using a different set of preferred pronouns/names when speaking with the parents than is being used at school";
• "use a name or pronoun to refer to that child that do not match the child's legal name and natal pronouns, where a child’s parent or legal guardian has communicated their objection to such use"; and
• use incorrect pronouns or a false name in reference to a student "while concealing that social gender transition from the child’s parents."

The judge also ordered state education officials to prominently feature the following statement in their LGBT "cultural competency" training materials:

Parents and guardians have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school student child expresses gender incongruence. Teachers and school staff have a federal constitutional right to accurately inform the parent or guardian of their student when the student expresses gender incongruence. These federal constitutional rights are superior to any state or local laws, state or local regulations, or state or local policies to the contrary.

"Today's incredible victory finally, and permanently, ends California's dangerous and unconstitutional regime of gender secrecy policies in schools," Paul Jonna, special counsel at the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.

"The court’s comprehensive ruling — granting summary judgment on all claims — protects all California parents, students, and teachers, and it restores sanity and common sense," continued Jonna. "With this decisive ruling from Judge Benitez, all state and local school officials that mandate gender secrecy policies should cease all enforcement or face severe legal consequences."

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