CALIFORNIA COULD START JAILING PEOPLE WHO DON’T USE TRANSGENDER PRONOUNS

 CALIFORNIA COULD START JAILING PEOPLE WHO DON’T USE TRANSGENDER PRONOUNS
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DailyCaller.com

A bill that passed the California state senate and is now moving
through the Assembly could threaten jail time for anyone who refuses to
use a transgender person’s preferred pronoun.

The law is currently limited in its effects to nursing homes and
intermediate-care facilities, but if passed, those who “willfully and
repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or
pronouns” could be slapped with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in
prison, according to the California Heath and Safety code. The state senate passed the bill 26-12
at the end of May. Since then, the Assembly Judiciary committee
recommended the bill unanimously and the General Assembly held its first
hearing on the legislation Wednesday.

“How can you believe in free speech, but think the government can
compel people to use certain pronouns when talking to others?” Greg Burt
of the California Family Council testified in
July. “This is not tolerance. This is not love. This is not mutual
respect. True tolerance tolerates people with different views. We need
to treat each other with respect, but respect is a two-way street. It is
not respectful to threaten people with punishment for having sincerely
held beliefs that differ from your own.”

Titled the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Long-Term Care
Facility Residents Bill of Rights,” the legislation also requires
nursing homes and care facilities to allow residents to use the bathroom
of their choice, regardless of biological sex. The bill’s author, state
Sen. Scott Weiner, argues that religious views don’t hold weight in
public areas.

“Everyone is entitled to their religious view,” Weiner said. “But
when you enter the public space, when you are running an institution,
you are in a workplace, you are in a civil setting, and you have to
follow the law.”

Experts argue it is “pretty unlikely that, if this law is enacted,
such prohibitions would be limited just to this [nursing home]
scenario,” UCLA First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh told National
Review. Volokh speculates that lawmakers chose to apply the bill to
nursing homes not because there is an overabundance of transgender
seniors in the state, but because the demographic group is likely to
garner sympathy.

The bill is one of several pieces of gender discrimination
legislation moving through California’s Congress this summer. The body
is also considering mandatory transgender training programs for
companies that have more than 50 employees, CBS Sacramento reported.

While that legislation doesn’t punish those who refuse to use gender
identity pronouns, it does affirm the right to transgender people to be
called what they wish.

Both bills await decision in the Assembly.