California Could Start Jailing People Who Don’t Use Transgender Pronouns

The Daily Caller ^ | August 25, 2017 | Anders Hagstrom

[2ndDivisionVet]

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.

[onedoug]

She’s at the wrong school. There are still some conservative colleges about.

[DungeonMaster]

YOU
YES YOU
STAND STILL LADDIE!

[DungeonMaster]

Not a problem for me, I don’t speak to or look at them. I avert my vision and shield my eyes as if avoiding being turned to a pillar of salt. I do the same thing when going past the local gay bar.

[HLPhat]

Meh.  Pronouns are so last millennium anyhow.

XX and XY aren't pronouns - they are biological FACTS.

XX + XX = FAIL

XY + XY = FAIL

XX + XY = Human

[JimRed]

...the only thing in that miserable state that’s worth keeping is the Dodgers. And Taylor Swift.

Didn't Swift host some kind of hate America fest last night?

[MoochPooch]

Not a problem for me, I don’t speak to or look at them. I avert my vision and shield my eyes as if avoiding being turned to a pillar of salt. I do the same thing when going past the local gay bar.

I live in Brooklyn, NY, which has become the "San Francisco of the East." Yesterday, just outside the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, I saw a bearded man in a dress walking a dog. The BBG itself was full of gay couples. They're hard to ignore; although I try to avoid interaction with them.

[ldish]

not hardly any in some professions, unfortunately today, private or public in this state, the administrative leaderships are all alike and are all saying the same things They are all socialist, spouting and expressing communist slogans and ideas, and in my opinion bordering on sedition type tactics.

Believe me, it I were paying for her education there, she would not be going there! If she can endure the peripheral BS she should still get an education in her chosen profession that will be at the top of heap. We will see after the first year. I am sure there are profs there, that are as mum and quiet and trying to be below the radar as she and I are at this point.

But the grand standing, in the face intimidation of the freshmen by the “leadership” on down will not be forgotten. It is not their job and I am sure their are many alumni that would not appreciate it either, the in your face intimidation!