SACRAMENTO, California (LifeSiteNews) — A Republican state senator on Tuesday issued a stark warning to California parents, urging them to “flee” the state if they love their children as a radical bill advances that could result in parents being considered “abusive” if they refuse to affirm their own child’s gender confusion.
California’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-2 on Tuesday night (with one abstention) to pass Assembly Bill 957, which would characterize a “parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child.”
The measure would alter Section 3011 of the California Family Code to require judges to consider whether or not parents “affirm” a child’s “transgender” identity as one of the factors in the consideration of custody disagreements, LifeSiteNews previously reported.
The Washington Free Beacon noted that the vaguely worded new amendment has sparked worries that “non-affirmation” will be regarded in the Golden State “as abuse.”
“In the past, when we’ve had these discussions, and I’ve seen parental rights atrophy, I’ve encouraged people to keep fighting,” California state Sen. Scott Wilk said during the Tuesday night Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“I’ve changed my mind on that — if you love your children, you need to flee California,” he said. “You need to flee.”
Wilk said the bill’s language could be used by the state to remove children from their homes if their parents don’t “support the ideology of the government.”
“It just breaks my heart. I [was] born and raised in California, I love this state,” he said. “I’m not gonna stay in this state because it’s just too oppressive.”
“I believe in freedom,” Wilk said, quipping that he’ll “move to America when I leave the legislature.”
Republican state Sen. Roger Niello, who voted against the measure along with Wilk, argued that “[t]he elevation of the issue accepts gender affirmation care as an accomplished science and accepts gender affirmation as the appropriate approach by a parent,” despite numerous European countries, including the U.K. and Sweden, moving away from the “affirmation” model.
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, critics of California’s AB 957 have blasted it for its potential to frame California moms and dads who don’t believe in gender ideology as “abusive” for refusing to affirm gender confusion in their own children.
Nicole Peterson, founder of law firm and civil rights advocacy group Facts Law Truth Justice, told The Daily Signal that AB 957 “is a horrifying bill for children, and for parents and guardians not just in California but across the country.”
Peterson said California’s far-left Gov. Gavin Newsom, who previously signed a bill allowing state courts to assert custody jurisdiction over children who have been transported to California to undergo gender interventions, “is gunning for president in 2028.”
Peterson suggested that if Newsom signs AB 957 “into law, here, it will be headed to every state if he wins.”
“If a parent or guardian is unwilling or simply not ready to affirm their 7-year-old’s new identity — as they transition from SpongeBob to Batman to Dora the Explorer — they can be found guilty of child abuse under AB-957 if it passes into law,” she said.
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A spokesman for Lori Wilson, who authored the bill and has claimed that even a seven-year-old should be “affirmed” in his or her gender confusion, pushed back on concerns that the newly revised legislation could put “non-affirming” parents in danger of “child abuse” charges, noting that the measure deals with family law, not criminal law.
“It’s not saying [“gender affirmation”] is the most important factor or determining factor,” the spokesman said. “It’s one of many factors that the judge should consider while working out a custody agreement.”
However, San Francisco attorney Erin Friday, who also co-leads a parent coalition called Our Duty, argued that the legislation provides a bridge to declaring that parents who refuse to “affirm” an alleged transgender identity are abusers.
“When you say that gender affirmation is in the child’s best interest for health, safety, and welfare, it takes nothing to say [non-affirmation] is now abuse — because you’re not taking care of the health, safety, and welfare if you’re not affirming them,” Friday said, according to The Free Beacon.
“We know exactly where they are going with it,” Friday said. “I didn’t think the bill could get worse, but it got worse.”
After passing the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, AB 957 is headed to the full Senate for a vote.