Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) actually vetoed a radical anti-parent bill regarding transgenderism. Good. The veto says less about Newsom, though, than it does about how common sense and decency are gaining ground against radical trans ideology.
The California State Assembly had passed a truly monstrous bill this month requiring judges to specifically consider if parents have affirmed their children’s gender identity or gender expression in determining “the health, safety, and welfare of the child.” The bill’s sponsor, Democrat Lori Wilson, specifically said the goal was to make it easier for the state to remove children from parents’ custody if a parent is “non-affirming” of the children’s transgender wishes. In such a case, Wilson said, “that child should not be with that parent.”
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On its face, the bill is sickening and dangerous. It would not allow parents to give time to see if the desire to transition to a different “gender” is real or instead just a passing phase. Judges would be obligated to assume that “non-affirmation” of the child’s wish is a mark of what Wilson calls “abuse” by the parent. This isn’t just “judge knows better than parent,” which would be bad enough; this is “legislature stacks the deck by ordering judges to assume the parents are wrong.”
Newsom’s veto message said not a single word about protecting the rights of parents, however. Instead, he wrote: “I urge caution when the Executive and Legislative branches of state government attempt to dictate — in prescriptive terms that single out one characteristic — legal standards for the Judicial branch to apply.” Then he babbled about how his real concern was that the same “prescriptive” approach somehow could be used “to diminish the civil rights of vulnerable communities.”
And he essentially apologized for the veto by kissing up to Wilson and other sponsors: “I appreciate the passion and values that led the author to introduce this bill. I share a deep commitment to advancing the rights of transgender Californians, an effort that has guided my decisions through many decades in public office.”
Clearly, Newsom’s own views still line up with the radical transgender ideologues. But Newsom is a political animal with national ambitions. Even he recognizes that a bill so outrageously treating parents as the enemy just won’t fly on a national stage. He knows that very large majorities of Americans believe that a person’s gender is determined at birth, that biological males should not compete in sports against females, that medication for gender transition is a bad idea for children, and that teachers should not discuss transgenderism in elementary schools. He knows that his own Democratic Party is at serious risk of massive political losses in suburbia because of its full-on embrace of transgenderism and that conservative Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) won the governorship of what had been the strongly Democratic state of Virginia by tapping into the parental rights movement.
And he can see that just last week, even in socially liberal Canada, people supporting parents against the left-wing trans agenda held massive, peaceful protests in cities all across the country.
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The backlash isn’t born of intolerance for transgender adults. It’s a backlash against the use of the power of the state and major institutions to push transgenderism on children and isolate the children from their parents. In short, it’s a backlash against transgender authoritarianism.
Newsom understands that even though left-wing California likes this trans agenda, the rest of the country doesn’t. His veto recognizes this political reality. Parents deserve to win this fight and are beginning to do so. Newsom’s savvy veto is his way to avoid becoming political roadkill.
