A California legislator has introduced a bill to mandate gender neutral bathrooms on to every K-12 public school campus. This might not be a problem if these restrooms were single stall, but that isn’t a requirement. Schools strapped for money would be forced to turn one of their multi-stall single sex bathrooms into gender neutral bathroom in order to comply with this bill if becomes law.
The bill, SB 760, authored by Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) would require California public schools to offer gender-neutral bathrooms for students by 2025. The bill builds on California’s decision a decade ago to require schools to allow students to use whichever bathroom aligns with their “gender identity” instead of their biological sex.
The bill states that these restrooms are required to be unlocked during school hours and can be converted from pre-existing gender-segregated bathrooms. Schools must hang signs identifying their gender-neutral bathrooms, stock them with free menstrual products, and ensure easy access to them without help from school staff.
“At some point in everybody’s day, you have to use the facilities,” Newman told the LA Times. “And if you’re a transgender, nonbinary, or questioning young person, having to navigate that challenge — especially if you haven’t come out to your friends or family — it creates an immense amount of stress, anxiety, and even physical pain.”
However, the bill does not specify whether the restrooms should be designated for one person or multiple stalls.
There would be no issue if the bill mandated single-stall bathrooms, as they protect the student’s privacy. However, gender-neutral multi-stall bathrooms are a disaster waiting to happen. They offer no privacy and no safety, especially for young girls. Instead, they invite kids to molest each other. What teacher is going to be the monitor?
“Our schools have an obligation to ensure the safety of our children especially in bathrooms,” said Greg Burt, Capitol Director for the California Family Council. “Children are vulnerable to abuse in bathrooms. If these gender neutral bathrooms are multi stall, mixing boys and girls together, the opportunities for sexual abuse only increases.”
Further, this legislation only promotes an ideology that is detrimental to the mental health of students. Instead of reassuring children they are the sex their bodies tell them they are, installing gender neutral bathrooms reinforces the lie that each kids gets to pick their sex. Many California schools are already hiding students’ gender identities from their parents. The last thing schools should be doing is further enabling gender-confused students’ social “transitions.”
In 2016, the Santee Education Complex became the first school in the Los Angeles Unified School District to introduce an all-gender bathroom. Then, last year, a Long Beach high school halted a gender neutral locker room project after parents objected. Many families and community members do not want these types of policies directing California schools.
Schools cannot deny girls the safety and privacy of gender-segregated bathrooms in order to indulge the disordered feelings of a few gender-confused students. Instead of meaningless virtue signaling, California schools should focus on providing more effective education and helping distressed students locate actual help, not harm.
