Greg Burt of the California Family Council explains that two Christian teachers said they could not abide by the school policy to keep the gender-transitioning of kids who what to change their name and pronoun at school a secret from parents.
On December 22, he says U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez in San Diego issued a "great decision" that California's public schools are not allowed to hide children's "gender transitions" from parents.
The federal judge agreed that these secrecy policies that are implemented all over California violate the Constitution, and he gave the state's public schools 20 days to tell all teachers that they must be open and honest with parents.
But State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond (D), Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), and the California State Board of Education appealed against that and requested an emergency stay. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit recently granted that, putting a pause on that initial decision.
So, the secrecy policies are still in place until this court case plays out, which Burt says means "we are back right where we started from."
"They'll argue it over the next month or so, and then there'll be a final decision," he summarizes.
Meanwhile, conservative legal groups have filed emergency requests with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to intervene before the appeals court decides whether to fully uphold or reverse the ruling.
"They are hoping the Supreme Court will reverse the 9th Circuit's decision and the original judge's decision to halt the secrecy policies will go into effect immediately," Burt tells AFN.
The case currently remains on appeal at the 9th Circuit; the Supreme Court has not yet agreed to hear it.
