Supporters of the law have hailed it as progressive legislation protecting the privacy of LGBTQIA+ youth, while critics have argued that parents have the right to information about their child’s activities at school. A Southern California school district, which is a local body for administering schools in a given area, sued Newsom on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in a post on X that his company would move its headquarters from Hawthorne in California to Starbase in Texas due to “this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies”.

What the California law says

The SAFETY Act came after several school districts in California passed policies requiring parents to be notified if a child requested to change their gender identification, The AP reported. It contains a series of declarations and the reasoning for leaving it to students to decide when to disclose their gender identity, and to whom.

These decisions, it states, “are deeply personal decisions, impacting health and safety as well as critical relationships, that every LGBTQ+ person has the right to make for themselves.”

Clause (f) of the law’s Section 2 states that “Policies that require outing pupils without their consent violate pupils’ rights to privacy and self-determination.” Clause (g) says, “Pupils have a constitutional right to privacy when it comes to sensitive information about them, and courts have affirmed that young people have a right to keep personal information private.”

In July 2023, a US District Court Judge dismissed a challenge to Chico Unified School District’s policy of not disclosing students’ gender identities to their parents. The judge observed, “District staff are directed to affirm a student’s expressed identity and pronouns and disclose that information only to those the student wishes, with an exception for the student’s health.”

Section 2 also contains other declarations regarding students sharing their gender identities. Clause (d) says, “Studies confirm that LGBTQ+ youth thrive when they have parental support and feel safe sharing their full identities with them, but it can be harmful to force young people to share their full identities before they are ready”. Building on this, clause (e) says: “Policies that forcibly out pupils without their consent remove opportunities for LGBTQ+ young people and their families to build trust and have these conversations when they are ready.”

What it says on obligations

The SAFETY Act places several obligations on the State Department of Education. For children in grades 7 to 12, “The department shall develop resources, or, as appropriate, update existing resources, for supports and community resources for the support of parents, guardians, and families” of LGBTQIA+ pupils. This should be done “in collaboration with parents, guardians, and families of, including, but not limited to, LGBTQ pupils”.

The section provides a list of resources, such as anti-bullying and harassment policies, counselling services, and suicide prevention policies.

Section 4 states that school district officials, including members of the governing board, “shall not in any manner retaliate or take adverse action against any employee” for actions performed “in a manner consistent with the recommendations or employer obligations set forth in this chapter”.

Sections 5 and 6 place identical responsibilities on schools, their employees and governing bodies, stating they “shall not be required to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by state or federal law.”

The intense debate

A spokesman for Governor Newsom said the law “protects the child-parent relationship by preventing politicians and school staff from inappropriately intervening in family matters and attempting to control if, when and how families have deeply personal conversations”.

But Emily Rae, a lawyer representing the district suing the Governor, said: “School officials do not have the right to keep secrets from parents, but parents do have a constitutional right to know what their minor children are doing at school.”

The issue of LGBTQ+ rights and policies have increasingly drawn polarised reactions in US politics in recent years. Republican states have sought to restrict discussions on LGBTQ+ matters in schools, while Democratic states have advocated for greater visibility of diverse gender and sexual identities.