California Parents on High Alert: Assembly Passes Bill That Could Strip Them of Custody
In America’s most populous state, the outcome of future custody battles might hinge on the lie of gender affirmation.
According to KCRA in Sacramento, the California Assembly passed a measure on Friday that would compel judges in custody disputes to consider each parent’s attitude toward a child’s professed gender identity.
Democrats adopted the ghastly provision by a 57-16 party-line vote. Several Democrats abstained. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Oct. 14 to sign or veto the measure.
The bill’s author, Democratic Rep. Lori Wilson, has claimed to have a transgender child. On the Assembly floor, Wilson also disingenuously stated that her bill would give contending parents no undue advantages.
“This does not put a thumb on the scale of one parent,” Wilson said on Friday. “It merely asks judges to consider this as one factor.”
Wilson’s euphemistic use of the word “asks” amounts to typical leftist Newspeak. In fact, her bill does much more than ask.
Section 3011 of the state’s family code requires that “the court shall” consider multiple factors in granting custody. That code lists the “health, safety, and welfare of the child” as the first factor.
The new bill, AB-957, amended this first factor by adding new language.
“As used in this paragraph, the health, safety, and welfare of the child includes, among other comprehensive factors, a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity or gender expression. Affirmation includes a range of actions and will be unique for each child, but in every case must promote the child’s overall health and well-being,” the amendment reads.
Thus, we see rather clearly the difference between “asks” and “the court shall.”
In June testimony before the California Senate Judicial Committee, parent and attorney Erin Friday noted the bill’s compulsory nature.
“There is no nuance in this bill. It matters not the age of the child, the absurdity of the identity adopted, comorbid mental health issues or persistence. Family court judges will be compelled to favor the [parent] who will affirm the child’s delusion,” Friday said.
One Twitter user posted a clip of Friday’s testimony in June.
“NEW: Erin Friday, a parent and attorney, deliveres a stellar testimony before the California Senate Judicial Cmte. against AB 957. She obliterated Rep. Wilson’s backpedaling on ‘child abuse’ claims and vague terminology,” an accompanying tweet read.
NEW: Erin Friday, a parent and attorney, deliveres a stellar testimony before the California Senate Judicial Cmte. against AB 957.
She obliterated Rep. Wilson’s backpedaling on “child abuse” claims and vague terminology. pic.twitter.com/WEPEpzk2qy
— Tony Kinnett (@TheTonus) June 13, 2023
When raising objections to AB-957, one hardly knows where to begin.
The bill injects another opportunity for mischief into a situation that already bristles with them. Anyone who fails to see how the less scrupulous of the two contending parents could weaponize AB-957 has simply chosen to bury his or her head in the sand.
Alas, the prospect of parental manipulation might qualify as AB-957’s most benign aspect.
California politicians have equated gender affirmation with a child’s well-being. This amounts to a state-sanctioned inversion of truth.
Unless they are toddlers engaged in make-believe, children do not get to impose their imagined identities on indulgent adults. At no time in history would the rational members of any human society have thought otherwise.
To the modern world alone — and especially to the woke fanaticism of the last decade or so — belongs the demonic innovation of sanctifying a child’s mental illness or narcissism.
In today’s California, a parent might soon have to acquiesce in the sanctification or else risk losing the child.
There are few more malignant evils than the compulsory affirmation of a lie.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
