On the last day for him to either sign or veto bills from the 2022 legislative session, California Governor Gavin Newsom added his signature September 30 to a quartet of LGBTQ-related bills. Two increase protections for LGBTQ families, while the other two are related to educational matters.
Discrimination against LGBTQ foster families will be banned under Assembly Bill 2466, which was authored by lesbian Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona). It explicitly prohibits an agency that places foster children from declining to place a child with a resource family because a resource family parent identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. It also scraps the usage of the phrase "hard-to-place children" in state codes.
"We must strive to instill this basic principle in foster care system: No child is too difficult to love or care for regardless of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression," Cervantes had tweeted in August after her bill was sent to Newsom's desk.
Death certificates will now need to list a decedents' parents without referring to the parents' gender because of AB 2436 co-authored by Cervantes and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda). The change will benefit LGBTQ+ parents as they navigate estate proceedings and other matters following the death of a child. It builds on the law pushed by Bauer-Kahan last year that added nonbinary as a gender option on the forms.
The state's pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will need to undergo at least one hour of culturally competent training about the concerns of LGBTQ+ patients before receiving a license under AB 2194 authored by gay Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego).
AB 2315 by Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) requires the governing board of each community college district in California to implement a process by which students, staff, and faculty can declare an affirmed name, gender, or both name and gender identification to be used in records where legal names are not required by law. The community colleges need to be in compliance with AB 2315 commencing with the 2023-24 academic year.
It builds on a bill adopted last year that prohibits the state's community colleges and public universities from deadnaming trans and nonbinary students — that is using their former names they were given based on the sex they were assigned at birth — on their diplomas and academic records.
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