SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the final days of the California Legislature’s 2022 session, which ended Wednesday night, state lawmakers sent 10 key pro-equality bills to Governor Newsom’s desk for his signature, one the largest legislative packages to date. The legislation, all sponsored by the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, Equality California, would help advance transgender equality and health, protect diverse LGBTQ+ families, safeguard reproductive freedom and ensure public documents reflect the identities of transgender and nonbinary Californians.
Earlier this year, Newsom signed AB 1666 (Bauer-Kahan), which protects people seeking abortion care in California, and SB 357 (Wiener), which repealed the state’s discriminatory loitering law and helped prevent police profiling and harassment of trans people and women of color. Equality California also led a successful push to secure key funding to improve school climate for LGBTQ+ students and worked to bolster state and county health agencies’ response to the MPV (monkeypox virus) health crisis — requests championed by Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Silicon Valley) and Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), respectively.
“While far right politicians in Texas and Florida were attacking trans kids and criminalizing abortion, California’s pro-equality Legislature has been hard at work advancing full, lived LGBTQ+ equality and protecting reproductive freedom,” said Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang. “From improving healthcare for the trans community and ensuring public records reflect LGBTQ+ people’s identities to providing refuge to trans kids and their families and people seeking abortion care, we and our legislative partners have sent an incredible package of pro-equality legislation to Governor Newsom’s desk. We look forward to the governor signing these bills and sending a clear message to LGBTQ+ people everywhere that California will always stand up for freedom and justice for all — until the work is done.”
The pro-equality legislation headed to Governor Newsom’s desk for consideration includes:
SB 107 (Wiener): Refuge for Transgender Youth and Their Families
SB 107 is a response to anti-trans laws of other states and will help to ensure that transgender youth and their families who come to California in pursuit of gender affirming care and an authentic life are protected in that endeavor.
SB 923 (Wiener): TGI Inclusive Care Act
This legislation will help to create a healthcare system that meets the needs of TGI people and will make it easier for TGI people to find life-saving gender-affirming services.
SB 1234 (Pan): STI Prevention & Treatment Fairness Act
This legislation will expand access to STI services for income-eligible patients who have confidentiality concerns, including LGBTQ+ patients, through the Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (FPACT) program, subject to funding from state and federal sources.
AB 1041 (Wicks): Leave for Chosen Families
This legislation will make access to job protected family caregiving and sick leave more equitable for all of California’s working families, including LGBTQ+ workers with chosen families.
AB 2091 (Bonta): Reproductive Health and Privacy
This legislation will protect the private medical information of people in California who are targeted by other states’ laws that interfere with a person’s right to obtain an abortion.
AB 2194 (Ward): Training for Pharmacists
This legislation will strengthen implementation of SB 159 (Wiener 2019) and reduce barriers to care for LGBTQ+ people by equipping pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to provide LGBTQ+ culturally competent services and care.
AB 2315 (Arambula): Minimizing Deadnaming in CCC Systems
This legislation will require Community College Districts to implement processes by which students, staff, and faculty can declare and use an affirmed name and/or gender on academic records.
AB 2417 (Ting): Youth Bill of Rights
This legislation will ensure that incarcerated youth – a disproportionate number of whom are LGBTQ+ – have easier access to information regarding their existing rights under state and federal law.
AB 2436 (Bauer-Kahan): Death Certificates
This legislation will make parental fields on death certificates gender inclusive, which will help LGBTQ+ parents navigate estate proceedings and other matters following the death of a child.
SB 1194 (Allen): All Gender Restrooms
SB 1194 authorizes localities to require that new public restrooms be designed for all genders, as specified.
Judge Evans will be the second openly LGBTQ+ justice; she will join Justice Martin Jenkins who was appointed October 2020.
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
