California Globe, by Katy Grimes: The California Senate Judiciary Committee just heard and passed Assembly Bill 957 by Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City), in which a parent could lose custody for not “affirming” or agreeing to a child’s claims about gender identity.
The bill, co-authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would require judges adjudicating such disputes over transgender-identifying children to favor the parent who “affirms” the child’s preferred identity in custody cases.
Hundreds of parents attended the hearing to oppose the bill, but none of that mattered to the Democrats who voted to pass the bill.
Assemblywoman Wilson said her bill, acknowledging “TGI” kids (transgender, gender diverse, intersex), was needed to address “parents antagonistic to their child’s gender identity.”
Several statistics about trans children and suicide were used in the arguments supportive of AB 957, including 1-in-5 trans/binary youth attempted suicide last year, and fewer than 1-in-3 trans kids have gender affirming homes. There was no supporting documentation to these claims.
So naturally, California wants to mandate “gender affirming” support.
Witnesses in support of AB 957 said “gender affirming” is nothing more than allowing the child to wear the opposite sex clothing and use the opposite sex name they identify with. Except that the bill will allow the courts to be able to accept reports of gender “abuse” of a child from “progressive activist organizations.”
As the Globe reported Monday:
“This bill clarifies that a family court, when determining the best interest of the child in a proceeding to determine custody or visitation for a child, shall consider, as part of the consideration of the health, safety, and welfare of the child, a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity,” the 06/09/23- Senate Judiciary bill analysis says.
So imagine a child of parents going through a contentious divorce, feeling confused, responsible for the breakup, and wanting the parents to get back together, announces that she is really a he. Under Wilson’s and Wiener’s bill, the parents must drop everything and provide “gender affirming care” if they want to see their child.
The opposition to AB 957 was interesting – hundreds of parents, many Latino parents, numerous nurses and some clergy. There were also many who announced they were Democrats from San Francisco and Los Angeles who drove to Sacramento to express their opposition. And parents made sure to tell their elected Senators if they were constituents.
One woman said as she was walking away from the microphone, “Nobody loves my child more than me.”
Perhaps the highlight was when Senator Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) addressed the committee, the bill’s author, and parents in the hearing room. He said in his 11 years in the California Legislature there have been many bills protecting children. However he said, “Now we need one to protect parents” if they don’t support positions of the government.
“If you love your child, you need to flee California,” Sen. Wilk added. “I’m going to move to America when I finish in the Legislature.” (that means out of California)
The committee passed AB 957 on a party line vote, 8-1. We will update the vote when all committee members have voted.
Our Comment:
The war on truth continues unabated.
Prophetic Link:
“The principles of Satan’s working in heaven are the same principles by which he works through human agents in this world. It is through these corrupting principles that every earthly empire and the churches have been increasingly corrupted. It is by the working out of these principles that Satan deceives and corrupts the whole world from the beginning to the ending. He is continuing this same policy-working, originally begun in the heavenly universe. He is energizing the whole world with his violence with which he corrupted the world in the days of Noah (Letter 156, 1897).” SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, page 1163.8.