Huntington Beach City Council majority approves of Parents’ Right to Know ordinance
The conservative Huntington Beach City Council majority has approved the introduction of a controversial “Parents’ Right to Know” ordinance, which supporters say allows parents to keep control but detractors say could have dangerous consequences.
Ordinance No. 4326 states that Huntington Beach is a Parents’ Right to Know city, regarding children’s gender identity or expression. The vote at Tuesday night’s meeting was what has become a familiar 4-3, with Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark, Mayor Pro Tem Pat Burns and councilmen Tony Strickland and Casey McKeon voting in favor. Their council colleagues Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton dissented.
The City Council does not have direct authority over school districts, but the ordinance states that educators who work in the city’s libraries, parks or other facilities will not be allowed to withhold information from parents related to a child’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Examples given Tuesday included instructors in the SANDS recreation classes, or Junior Lifeguards instructors.
But Carlos Rubio, president of Teamsters Local 911, said in an email to the City Council that the Huntington Beach Municipal Teamsters had not received a comprehensive list of positions that would be affected by the ordinance.
“Additionally, we have not been invited to engage in a meet and confer process regarding the ordinance and its potential implications for our members,” Rubio wrote. “Accordingly, we respectfully request that Ordinance 4326 be voted down and not put into effect, until specific terms and conditions that could impact our members have been clearly identified and discussed with our leadership team.”
Bolton said during the meeting she didn’t think it was appropriate to pass the ordinance since that process with the union had not taken place, but the vote still went forward.
Huntington Beach Deputy City Atty. Connor Hyland said those who didn’t follow the ordinance would be issued an infraction, rather than be charged with a misdemeanor. Hyland fielded questions about the ordinance during the meeting in the absence of City Atty. Michael Gates.
Kalmick called the ordinance “ridiculous and not in our wheelhouse.”
“We need to be working on our budget, we need to be working on recruitment of executive staff, recruitment of a city manager, not trying to solve, again, solutions to problems that don’t exist ... I haven’t had a single parent write in and say, ‘We have a problem and need you to solve it,’” Kalmick said.
Ordinance No. 4326 also states the city attorney could file litigation with the state over AB 1955, either on behalf of the city itself or a parent of a student in a Huntington Beach public school.
Bolton questioned whether the city attorney could represent a private individual. Hyland responded that the council has in the past authorized the city attorney’s office to represent individuals who weren’t city employees or elected officials, though he couldn’t think of examples off the top of his head.
Moser offered a detailed breakdown of her misgivings about the ordinance, including that she didn’t think a child’s gender identity or expression was a city affair.
“Despite the narrowing of this ordinance from the original proposal to apply only to educators within city facilities, it remains deeply problematic,” Moser said. “This ordinance represents a significant overreach of our jurisdiction, a misuse of public funds and a politically motivated attempt to insert government into the private lives of our residents.”
She said the ordinance could put transgender and gender non-conforming students at greater risk, while creating an atmosphere of fear and division.
Van Der Mark did not speak in detail on the subject during Tuesday night’s meeting but opened up during an interview Wednesday with the Daily Pilot.
She said the ordinance is in direct opposition to State Assembly Bill 1955, which was approved by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in July. The bill prohibits requiring public school educators to disclose a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to anyone, including parents, without the student’s permission. However, the educators may initiate a conversation with parents if they choose.
“We’re not going to give up on our rights to raise our own children,” Van Der Mark told the Daily Pilot. “They’re claiming that this is government overreach, but AB 1955 is the actual overreach. We’re pushing back. We wouldn’t be doing any of this if the governor wouldn’t have overstepped with AB 1955.”
She further shared that she was drawing on her own experience as a teenage parent when considering the ordinance.
“I was afraid to tell my parents when I was pregnant,” she said. “I was terrified because I knew that it was going to hurt for them to realize that my life was going to become a lot more difficult. But at the end of the day, I sat down with them, we had a conversation. We were frustrated, there were tears, there were discussions back and forth. After we processed through our feelings, we said, we’re going to figure this out.
“What [AB 1955] is doing is robbing the parents of that opportunity. The teachers would become judge, jury and executioner.”
Public comments Tuesday night were largely mixed on the issue. One longtime resident who asked not to be identified said her brother committed suicide six weeks after his 19th birthday, leading her to become involved in suicide prevention.
“In our city, LGBTQ kids need a comfortable place, a safe place to figure it out, and it should be in their own hometown of Huntington Beach,” she said. “Your actions are causing H.B. children to become paranoid in their own hometown.”
A couple of speakers identified themselves as members of the organization Gays Against Groomers, and they said they supported the ordinance.
“We urge you to vote yes on this ordinance and move forward to defend parents’ rights,” said Joey Macesieb, who identified himself as the outreach and events coordinator for the organization’s California chapter. “When you are called homophobic, when you are called transphobic, remember the words of Margaret Thatcher. When they attack you personally, they do not have a single political argument left.”
The council first called for the ordinance at its last meeting on Aug. 6. The ordinance would be scheduled to come back for the final reading at the next council meeting on Sept. 17.
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