Dear Marriage Supporter,
We warned Californians during the Proposition 8 campaign that once marriage was redefined, it would open the floodgates to more proposals to use the public schools to push our opponents' activist agenda. Their ultimate goal has never been simply to have the right to "gay marriage;" it's to strip society of all gender roles. Well, true to form, that's exactly what's happening, and they're using California's school children as a weapon to wage their culture war.
Not even two short months after the US Supreme Court refused to uphold the right of over 7 million Californians to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, the California Legislature passed AB 1266, the school co-ed bathroom law. If you haven't heard of this new law, you soon will. The law mandates that any student has the right to use the showers, restrooms and locker rooms — and play on school sports and athletic teams — of the opposite sex based on claiming "gender identity."
Stop the Madness
As bad as this is, fortunately we have an opportunity to all work together to stop this madness by qualifying a referendum to put the new law enacted by AB 1266 on the ballot, where I am confident that it will be rejected by voters.
This new law opening the most vulnerable areas of schools — showers, bathrooms and changing areas — to the opposite sex is set to start on January 1st. However, the good news is we can stop it from ever going into effect by mounting a referendum effort.
NOM California has endorsed the referendum effort to reject the co-ed shower and bathroom law, and we encourage you to join us. We've joined with the Privacy For All Students coalition to help collect the 505,000 voter signatures needed to put the new law on the ballot, and to suspend it until voters have the chance to reject it in 2014.
Please act today to download the referendum petition and begin collecting voter signatures to stop this legislation that opens school showers, bathrooms and locker rooms to members of the opposite sex.
It's Truly Outrageous!
The coalition only has until early November to collect approximately 505,000 voter signatures needed to suspend AB 1266 and give voters the right to decide if we want to overturn this outrageous law.
How bad is this new co-ed shower and bathroom law? It's truly outrageous. This new law invades the privacy of our children while they are in the most vulnerable areas of a school — showers, rest rooms and locker rooms. The law allows any student to use the facilities reserved for the opposite sex simply by asserting a vague "gender identity." The bill contains no definitions, rules, standards or guidelines. It simply creates a right for students of the opposite sex to use the most sensitive private areas at school.
Can you imagine how your daughter or granddaughter would feel having to share a shower with a male student following gym class? All the male student has to do is claim a female gender identity, and this new law gives him the absolute right to shower with female students!
Conversely, imagine a scenario where a fully-developed teenage girl decides to shower with the guys, claiming that she identifies with the male sex.
The new law is so poorly drafted that the student claiming a gender identity opposite his or her actual gender needs no evidence that he or she actually identifies with the opposite gender. There is no requirement that the person have ever presented himself or herself at school or home as the opposite gender. There's no requirement for a medical or professional evaluation. And there is no requirement that the student's parents be involved in the decision. The law is wide open for abuse.
Please help us by collecting as many signatures as you possibly can. Please also share this petition with all your friends, family and colleagues and ask them to help as well. (Before collecting signatures, please download and read the circulation instructions to make sure all the signatures you collect will be acceptable.)
I firmly believe that with this new law the homosexual movement has gone too far and exposed their agenda — and their willingness to use our children and grandchildren as tools to achieve it. The new co-ed shower and bathroom law is the only bill of its kind ever enacted in America. With your help, we can stop it by getting behind the Privacy For All Students coalition referendum effort.
This New Law Doesn’t Prevent Bullying — it is Bullying
Our opponents and the political elite will try to portray this new law as being necessary to prevent discrimination and bullying. But the fact is that California already protects so-called transgender students against bullying and discrimination, including actions based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and non-conforming gender appearance and behavior.
A recent statewide poll showed just how unpopular this new law is with California voters. Only 35% of voters support the law, while 51% oppose it. We never had that kind of advantage with Prop 8 — a 16 point lead — showing just how far this new law is out of the mainstream.
Please help NOM California with an urgent financial contribution as we reach out to voters across the state to spread the word and encourage citizens to sign the referendum petition. We hope to play a significant role in getting the referendum on the ballot, just as we were in helping qualify Proposition 8 back in 2008. In fact we were the largest contributor to qualifying Prop 8, and we hope to play a significant role in qualifying this referendum as well.
The time available to qualify the referendum to the ballot is short — effectively only 80 days to collect signatures. That's why no referendum has ever qualified solely by volunteers. To be successful, we need to fund a professional circulation effort to supplement the work of the volunteers.
Your contribution will help us be able to make the difference in qualifying this most urgently needed referendum. It will be used to support the effort by printing petitions, spreading the word and helping to pay for professional circulators. Please give today.
This new law doesn't prevent bullying — it is bullying. It's is not about protecting kids; it damages kids
The bill is so badly written it may actually deprive transgender students of access to targeted strategies to help them, including offering access to gender-neutral single-stall restrooms, access to faculty facilities and other strategies tailored to meet the specific needs of the individual student. Instead, the transgender student is forced into a one-size-fits all process pushed by agenda political activists.
All Kids Deserve Support and Love
God made society to be male and female because men and women are complementary, and the union of men and women is the only union that can create new life. There's no question that children thrive when they receive the love of both genders, beginning with a mother and a father. Yet some children suffer from gender confusion and deal with powerful emotions that draw them to identify with the opposite gender. Those kids deserve our support and love — we are all children of God — and certainly no child should be subjected to discrimination or bullying. But California already protects children from bullying based on gender identification. This new co-ed shower and bathroom law is about agenda politics, not helping kids.
We can stop this outrageous law in its tracks, and thwart the efforts of homosexual activists to use vulnerable children as a weapon in their culture war to redefine society. Please act today to download a referendum petition and get started immediately collecting signatures.
Please also consider making an immediate financial contribution to NOM California so that we can help reach other Californians and get them involved in the effort as well.
We can stop the gender madness coming out of Sacramento by stopping the co-ed bathroom and shower law in its tracks. Supporting the Privacy For All Students referendum against the law is something we can do today that will make a real difference for our children, grandchildren, and for generations of kids to come. Please act today.
Sincerely,
Brian S. Brown
PS — Please act today to download the petition to stop this outrageous law that jeopardizes the safety, security and privacy of vulnerable children using sensitive school facilities like showers, restrooms and locker rooms. We need to collect over 500,000 voter signatures by early November. We also urgently need your financial help to spread the word to more Californians who need to know about this terrible legislation, and to supplement our volunteer effort with professional circulators. Thank you.
