School Climate & Safety

Citing New Transgender Law, Lawmaker Pulls Son From School

By Gina Cairney — August 19, 2013 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A California legislator has pulled one of his sons from public school after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law last week that provides transgender students explicit protection on campus.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a Republican, said he was withdrawing his 13-year-old because the law will replace students’ rights to privacy with a “right to be ogled,” according to the Associated Press.

He also has a 16-year-old son, but didn’t make any comments about whether the older son would return to his public high school.

Starting next year, the law will allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms and join sports teams based on the gender they identify with.

In an opinion column on the independent news site, WND, Donnelly wrote that allowing boys and girls to share private facilities could encourage inappropriate behaviors, because, well, hormones.

He wrote that teenage boys and girls sharing the same locker rooms, showering side by side “is a recipe for disaster.”

“While trying to address a concern of less than 2 percent of the population,” Donnelly said the state is “forcibly violating the rights of the other 98 percent.”

His sons attend the Rim of the World Unified School District in the San Bernardino Mountains, east of Los Angeles.

Donnelly, who is exploring a bid for governor next year, said he’s heard from other parents who were also concerned about the law and thinking about withdrawing their own children from public school.

Although some California districts already have policies that protect LGBTQ students, proponents of the law say the bill gives the issue more prominence and advances long-sought rights of transgender students.

The LGBTQ community view it as just one small victory among other small victories.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Rules for Engagement blog.