Huntington Beach Mayor wants city to oppose gender notification ban

Huntington Beach mayor wants city to oppose state law barring schools from forcing teachers to out students

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By Nathan SolisStaff Writer

Aug. 2, 2024 1:44 PM PT

The Huntington Beach City Council may soon consider an ordinance to oppose a newly signed California law that bars public schools from forcing teachers to notify families about a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without the student’s permission.

Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark told news station Fox 11 that she plans to introduce the challenge to the state law at an upcoming council meeting. On Tuesday the council is scheduled to consider a motion to make Huntington Beach a “Parents’ Right to Know” city.

The proposal arrives after a contentious series of decisions by more than a dozen conservative-leaning school districts to impose parental notification policies that LGBTQ+ activists viewed as an avenue to out transgender students.

One of the first was Chino Valley Unified, which required teachers to contact a parent if their child asked to be “identified or treated” as having a gender other than their “biological sex” or the gender listed on their birth certificate.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta sued the district over the policy, and state lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 1955, which was signed into law by Newsom last month. Authored by Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego), the law shields teachers from retaliation for supporting transgender student rights and prohibits “forced disclosure” rules in K-12 schools.

Conservative opponents of the law claim that it intrudes on the relationship between parents and their children, while LGBTQ+ activists argue that the law is necessary to protect vulnerable youths.

Now the city of Huntington Beach plans to challenge AB 1955 or join a parents’ challenge to the law, according to a staff report from the city. The motion does not specify how the city would enforce its ordinance, whether there would be any penalties for complying with the state’s law or if the city’s efforts are simply a matter of opposing the governor on a partisan issue.

“The governor can raise his children the way he wants,” Van Der Mark told news station Fox 11. “I will raise my children the way I want. They’re our children and it’s our choice. He needs to stick his nose out of our business.”

Van Der Mark’s motion to the City Council calls teachers and instructors in educational programs “secular educators” and secondary to parents.

City government, however, has little to no jurisdiction over local schools and school districts, Huntington Beach Councilmember Dan Kalmick said.

“It’s weird,” Kalmick told The Times about the mayor’s proposal. “If the mayor wants to pick a fight with the governor over LGBTQ+ rights, she’s more than welcome to do that on her own time.”

Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, said there are instances where state laws and local ordinances can exist side by side.

“But if the state and city point in opposite directions, if there is a true conflict, we know that the state law trumps the local ordinance,” Levinson said.

Kalmick called the proposal a distraction from other topics the city should be taking up, such as housing, homelessness and crime. He also wonders why the matter is not being offered to the council as a resolution rather than an ordinance.

Van Der Mark did not immediately respond to requests to comment about the proposed ordinance.

In the last year, the city of Huntington Beach banned the flying of the LGBTQ+ pride flag over City Hall, created a special board to screen children’s books in its public libraries and proclaimed itself a “No Mask and No Mandate City.”