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LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Days after a landmark law went into effect requiring California schools to teach about gay historical figures, a new piece of proposed legislation is likely to spark even more controversy.
Sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), AB 266 would require schools to allow students to play on sports teams according to their “gender identity” and not their biological sex.
The bill — which is currently before the Assembly Education Committee — was initially aimed at resolving conflicts among local governments “and other interests” through the creation of a state sports commission.
However, revised language in the proposed bill would mandate that students “shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs, activities, and facilities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records”.
Under the proposal, a boy who claims a female “gender identity”, for example, would have the right to try out for a girls sports team.
In addition, the bill would also require opposite-sex access to “sex-segregated facilities” that could possible include locker rooms.
Ammiano claims to be the first San Francisco public school teacher “to make his sexual orientation a matter of public knowledge”.
In 1977, he worked with prominent gay activist Harvey Milk to defeat an effort that would have prohibited gay teachers from working in California.
Assemblyman Don Wagner (R-Irvine) is among those on the Assembly Education Committee set for a hearing on the bill on Wednesday.
89 Comments
It is about time. Times are changing and so we should adapt. I commend the man behind this bill and I am in favor of it.
January 10, 2012 at 12:41 pm | | Report comment
A bill whose time has come. Kudos!
January 12, 2012 at 12:20 am | | Report comment
DUMB & DUMBER….By the minute….LEAVE CALIFORNIA – Or WAKE UP & Change it back to COMMON SENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 1, 2012 at 12:21 pm
thank god i do not live in CA, I would pull my daughter from school beofre I let her share a locker room with biys, ANyone that thinks this is a good idea is sick themeselves, or a Pedophile,
January 12, 2012 at 6:13 am | | Report comment
This man that propose this bill should be impeached and run out of office, sharing locker rooms in school, sick, sick. Only in a liberal and sick, state like CA would they come up with something like that. Maybe one day a earth Quake will hit and Ca will slide into the ocean,
January 12, 2012 at 6:16 am | | Report comment
I suggest you educate yourself about transgender/transsexual people. It is a congenital birth condition.
January 12, 2012 at 8:04 am
“I suggest you educate yourself about transgender/transsexual people. It is a congenital birth condition.”
I suggest you educate yourself about delusion. Believe you are something you are not not only doesn’t MAKE you that thing, it makes you delusional. A boy who think he’s a girl isn’t a girl any more than a boy who think’s he’s a horse is a horse. Anyone who argues otherwise is a fool.
January 13, 2012 at 4:13 pm
It’s not a matter of times changing, it’s a matter of biology. I’m in no way speaking out against various gender identities. I’m all for it; however, just because a male looks and acts like a male, the fact remains that the person is still a male. It’s like getting into a fight with a transgendered man. He will still hit you like a man. And that goes for sports as well. Males are bigger, stronger, and faster than females. Not in all cases, but in the overall majority. You may think that’s a sexist statement, but it’s a statement of biological fact.
January 12, 2012 at 7:33 am | | Report comment
I mean if a male looks and acts like a female, the fact remains that he’s still male
January 12, 2012 at 7:34 am
You are uninformed about transsexualism; it is a scientifically proven congenital birth condition. A person can be born with a brain-body mismatch. Transsexual people transition (aka “sex change”) to correct that mismatch. Sex and gender are much more complex than you believe.
January 12, 2012 at 8:06 am
The believers of tje liberal Religion of Equality want nothing to do with any science proving it otherwise any more than strict literal Biblical interpreters want to do with any science opposing their view
January 13, 2012 at 11:33 am
“scientifically proven congenital birth condition”
Your statement lies somewhere between “oversimplification” and “outright lie.”
Even if it was something you’re born with, that’d make it a genetic mental disorder. Shall we next create special accomodations for people who think they’re dogs? Maybe people who are sexually attracted to children – perhaps they were “born that way”? It’s delusion and/or perversion, nothing else.
January 13, 2012 at 4:16 pm
I wish they would have passed this rule when I was in high school. I would have been more than happy to put on a wig and some eye shadow in order to sit in the girl’s locker room and watch them all showering.
Point is, how will they know this isn’t the case? Isn’t this way too open to abuse? There is absolutely NO WAY to confirm how someone actually feels about their gender identity.
And what about those who would be offended at being ‘exposed’ to someone of the opposite sex? What about their feelings?
Not only that, but if there truly is no line between gender, if you let in a male who perceives himself to be female, but you DON’T let in a male who perceives himself to be male, then you are guilty of discrimination in the other direction.
The only “logical” way out of this trap is to only have unisex locker rooms for everyone. Right? Is this what we want?
I think this legislator is an idiot.
January 12, 2012 at 10:58 am | | Report comment
PLEASE BRING BACK COMMON SENSE TO AMERICA – Kick out CORRUPTION, Fire Lazy & sick Union Thugs & BAD Teachers…Get it through their heads that the society – OUR society, which was built on RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS, irrespective of choice, so – instead, we get a bunch of far-left-wing nut jobs & pedophiles who will NEVER FIGURE IT OUT – THEY are the cause of the DECAY – RAMPANT DECAY. Help us Lord Jesus! Bring the judgement upon even more people if we continue to IGNORE all that is good…..EVIL IS HERE TO STAY IF GOOD PEOPLE DO NOT FIGHT & SPEAK UP NOW!!!
February 1, 2012 at 12:30 pm
I don’t think boys, even if they think of themselves as girls, should be allowed to compete against girls on a track field. It’s patently unfair to the girls. Generally speaking, boys are stronger and faster than girls.
As for sharing locker rooms, in my opinion it would be better to have a separate locker room or area for those who gender identify as the opposite sex. It certainly can’t be good for a transsexual to be in the boys’ locker room, and it’d probably be very awkward for them to be in a girls’ locker room.
January 13, 2012 at 11:13 am | | Report comment
We can get around your first objection by not declaring winners or losers but giving everyone participation trophies
January 13, 2012 at 11:38 am
YOUR AN IDIOT….SICK SIMPLY SICK
January 14, 2012 at 9:56 am | | Report comment
you would be ok with boys in the locker room with your daughter?? This bill is stupid.
January 16, 2012 at 11:34 pm | | Report comment
That is the DUMBEST IDEA EVER – It serves NO purpose. It will NEVER pass if the AMERICAN PEOPLE get their way. There are just some things that should “remain the same” NOT every single thing in life has to evolve, just for the sake of evolving…WAKE UP before it is too late!!!! CALIFORNIA here we LEAVE….in droves.
February 1, 2012 at 12:20 pm | | Report comment
SICK & SICKER is this society. STOP WITH THE NONSENSE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 1, 2012 at 12:22 pm | | Report comment
No wonder parents are home schooling their kids these days. I would no more allow my daughter to share a locker room with a boy just because he THINKS he’s a girl, than I would let her share one with a boy who KNOWS he’s a boy! How freaking ridiculous!!!!
January 10, 2012 at 1:56 pm | | Report comment
Instead of freaking out like a phobic idiot I would suggest you educate yourself. You can read more about gender identity and transsexualism here:
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/TS.html#anchor107763
Transsexual people don’t “think” they are, they KNOW the same way you do. Transsexualism is a scientifically proven congenital birth condition.
January 12, 2012 at 8:08 am | | Report comment
Sure, keep telling yourself that. The only thing you’ve proven is that when people lie to themselves long enough, they’ll start to believe it.
You can link all of the “scientific” articles you want, but that doesn’t do anything to disprove the fact that you’re one sick puppy.
January 13, 2012 at 10:27 am
These are kids and frankly I cannot believe that any of them are completely sure about anything. They are still trying to figure out who they are. And XRK9854 how do you call this “congenital birth condition?” That just opens pandora’s box doesn’t it? If it is a birth defect, shouldn’t society strive to “cure” it? Isn’t that the crux of this problem? If it is a choice we discriminate against choice all day long (ie smokers) but if is a flawed gene don’t we have a moral obligation to try to find a cure?
January 13, 2012 at 12:28 pm
I don’t think girls would feel too comfortable with a boy in the locker room regardless of what he thinks he is. To them, he isn’t. I know i would feel totally uncomfortable with a boy in the locker room. there is so much about this bill this is plain ridiculous.
January 16, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Wow. This is insane. Imagine the future headlines popping up on an average basis… “3 male high school students rape female student in locker room”
January 10, 2012 at 2:25 pm | | Report comment
or, “three FEMALE students rape MALE student in locker room”.
January 10, 2012 at 2:51 pm | | Report comment
Totally misinformed. A transsexual woman is a woman and she has no desire to use those parts you like so much, that’s why she is transitioning in the first place. As part of this process she takes hormones and testosterone blockers that also make destroy a normal male sexual response. A rape isn’t going to happen, that’s just a wild transphobic fantasy of yours.
January 12, 2012 at 8:11 am | | Report comment
You don’t need to have that particular bit of anatomy to force yourself onto a person…Look how many people get arrested for using a “foreign object” to do the deed.
January 13, 2012 at 10:29 am
I thing vouchers would end all this madness.
January 10, 2012 at 2:40 pm | | Report comment
Voters will when they tell Jerry NO on his tax plan.
January 10, 2012 at 10:38 pm | | Report comment
ALONG WITH FORCED VACCINATIONS, THIS IS ONE MORE REASON TO HOMESCHOOL.
January 10, 2012 at 3:01 pm | | Report comment
As far as Im concerned – they can interact on the filed all they want, but to mix teenage boys and/or girls in the lockeroom in any setting for any reason is inappropriate and endangerment, unsafe for all invovlved – Remember kids arent adults – and they dont act like adults…..
January 10, 2012 at 3:10 pm | | Report comment
You are misinformed. Transsexual women are NOT men. They may have been born into male bodies, but their brains have always been female. That’s what transsexualism is, being born with a brain-body mismatch. Transsexual people transition (aka “sex change”) to correct that mismatch AND assume a gender appropriate role in society. The people who’s safety is more of a concern is the trans people., they have been subject to rampant harassment and hate crimes. Because of this trans people are usually much better behaved than their peers.
January 12, 2012 at 8:15 am | | Report comment
We get it! We get it! Everyone is misinformed, everyone needs to get educated. You are the only one who knows it all.
January 12, 2012 at 10:20 am
My thing is not the people who are transsexual, but the people who aren’t who are going to take advantage of this, say they are and go in there and assault or rape somebody or anything else that could happen. Most people are not as misinformed as you are accusing, there are concerns with this situation that have nothing to do with the transsexual people themselves.
January 12, 2012 at 10:45 am
They’re just sick in the head, just like those nut-jobs that chop off their own limbs…
January 13, 2012 at 10:30 am
A boy who think he’s a girl isn’t a girl any more than a boy who think’s he’s a horse is a horse. Anyone who argues otherwise is a fool.
January 13, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Just like my dog was better behaved once “Changed” never the same after that happened,but it didn’t even come close to making him a female.
January 15, 2012 at 9:29 pm
sorry thats on the field – not filed
January 10, 2012 at 3:11 pm | | Report comment
Private schools will love this. They can promote properly separated locker rooms as a selling point.
January 10, 2012 at 5:19 pm | | Report comment
at this rate if they think I’m planning to educate my future offspring in their bass ackwards classrooms they’re nuts. I’ll gladly take my tax dollars elsewhere, where there is some sanity in the teaching environment and curriculum.
VOUCHERS NOW!
January 10, 2012 at 7:13 pm | | Report comment
Translation: I want the government to bankroll my prejudice!
Oh grow up and educate yourself.
January 12, 2012 at 8:17 am | | Report comment
Educate yourself. Not everyone agrees with your version of the human condition.
January 12, 2012 at 11:59 am
Little Tip the government doesn’t bankroll anything. WE DO! IT IS OUR TAX DOLLARS! We should have the right to use the dollars that we send to the government for our children’s education in any way we see fit. Figure out how much you spend per student then let me take that off my taxes when I send my child to private school.
January 13, 2012 at 12:33 pm
So it is prejudiced for me to not want to have my kids sharing locker rooms with members of the opposite sex? Well then I AM A PREJUDICED PERSON 100%. And am proud of that in fact.
January 14, 2012 at 4:00 am
As a one-time teacher myself.. I find it TRULY sad that people HONESTLY believe that a voucher system will “save the day”.
It’s a shame that it will take HINDSIGHT for people to realize just how SHORT-SIGHTED such moves turn out to be. I.e. the only ones who TRULY “win” with these systems are the “mega buck” oriented “administrators” of such “schools”.
January 10, 2012 at 8:39 pm | | Report comment
What is the solution then Paul?
January 11, 2012 at 12:15 pm | | Report comment
We should have the right to use the dollars that we send to the government for our children’s education in any way we see fit. Figure out how much you spend per student then let me take that off my taxes when I send my child to private school.
January 13, 2012 at 12:34 pm | | Report comment
I wonder how many guys will discover their feminine side, just to shower with the girls. Hey, I’m just thinking like a 16 year old.
January 11, 2012 at 8:00 am | | Report comment
if a kid wants to participate in a sport and they actually have some talent, they shouldn’t be barred from competing just because their school only has a team that is boys OR girls. we’ve seen a few girls end up wrestling on boys’ teams over the years, for instance, because their school didn’t have a girls team. but the locker rooms? no. i doubt it will come to letting ppl with boy plumbing into the girls locker room anyway, or vice versa. i don’t care if a child “identifies” as a girl or a boy, but the fact is, unless or until one has surgery, boy bits are boy bits and girl bits are girl bits, and all of our bits are no ones to look at period. if some kids are uncomfortable in the locker room that matches the bits they were born with, give them a room to themselves. it’s hypocritical that we tell our kids that it’s not o.k. for strangers to see them in their nudies and then they are forced to be in a state of undress in the locker room anyway. let ‘em change and shower up at home.
January 11, 2012 at 8:02 am | | Report comment
Who’s to say how I identify myself one day to the next. Allowing either sex to participate in gender specific sports teams will keep a lot of girls off the team. I played JV on the boys basketball team, and got third place throwinng the shot and discus in track. I think I could join the girls team and be a superstar and the showering would be an added bonus!
January 11, 2012 at 8:28 am | | Report comment
So disgusting, why arent they thinking about how the boys or girls in these locker rooms are going to respond to a person of the opposite sex peering at them. What about their rights. What if your bi- what do they do then , do you get full access to both lockers rooms. Ridiculous. People who suggest these laws shouldn’t get a forum, they should get a psych eval.
January 11, 2012 at 9:42 am | | Report comment
So if you are a 6’5″ male who thinks he is a female you can go out for the girls Softball team? Enough already. Just keep them separate.
January 11, 2012 at 10:45 am | | Report comment
All these comments exhibit very simplistic and reactionistic thinking, and do not reflect the very real difficulties that exist with the extraordinary situation of children whose biological makeup is profoundly divergent from the norm. I have to say that the knee-jerk reaction of the haters and homeschoolers is more distasteful than a poor child whose biology is broken and needs help and understanding. Keep your ugly attitudes at home and away from society. And your mystical beliefs that transgendered people are somehow evil or they choose this need to be silenced by science and the rational thinkers in our society. Deal with the fact that there are millions of ways for the creation of a baby to go wrong and not produce a “boy” or a “girl” exactly as your limited minds demand. “God” help these poor children to find the love and acceptance they deserve and escape the evil that the religious and the rest proffer.
January 11, 2012 at 12:18 pm | | Report comment
Kimberly, Bigot like you have no right expressing your opinion. Science is NOT on your side. Get an education before you make such ill-informed comments.
January 11, 2012 at 4:05 pm | | Report comment
Why is it that people who disagree with someone else’s opinion is a “hater”? I understand the confusion these kids are under but separating everything to death makes no sense to me. Playing sports according to what you think you are is kinda dumb. Maybe they should stop making “girls” and “boys” teams and just let them play together. But the locker room thing, no way!
January 16, 2012 at 11:55 pm | | Report comment
You can’t make this stuff up. I just sit and shake my head at what is happening to our country.
And it is invariably proposed by some politician with a “D” after his or her name.
Kooks.
January 11, 2012 at 1:07 pm | | Report comment
Who are the sick minds who are constantly pushing that there is a third gender kind? There are only two genders–Male & Female.
These perverted people keeps on introducing sinful things to children.
January 11, 2012 at 3:29 pm | | Report comment
What about hermaphrodites who are biologically born with with both sex organs?…
January 11, 2012 at 10:55 pm | | Report comment
can they do them
selves =)
January 12, 2012 at 6:20 am
The inner anatomical structure of a hermaphrodites will distinguish them if they are a male or female. Are they capable of bearing children? If so then they are female. if they do not have the reproductive organ capable of bearing children but is capable of producing sperm then they are males. You must have just seen hermaphrodites in some sizzy men’s magazine. Go to the medical library…You might find the truth about hermaphrodites….They are NOT both male and female…There are no hermaphrodite that can both bear a child and produce sperm that could impregnate a female.
January 12, 2012 at 8:49 am
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I agree with much that has been posted below. I am completely okay with them allowing to play with whichever team they identify with, In fact I believe that shouldn’t be an issue even for people who identify with their own sex; for example, if a girl wants to play football and she’s good, she should be allowed to play, who cares if she’s a girl. Anyways, I do not agree with mixing the locker rooms ESPECIALLY because I feel some of these kids are going to somehow take advantage of this so guys can go shower with girls etc etc, before you know this school is going to be facing cases of rape and sexual assault. If the student who identifies with the opposite sex and is uncomfortable being in the locker room with this biological sex, then accommodations should be made otherwise. (For example a handicap unisex bathroom for changing.)
January 12, 2012 at 3:45 am | | Report comment
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and the country continues to go down the toilet
January 12, 2012 at 7:49 am | | Report comment
This is idiotic. People look at these bills and think “that’s fair” because they don’t think ramifications and they assume that all of these rules will be used the “right” way. A boy could use this just to get access to the girls locker room. Sound ridiculous? Take a look at your newspaper. there are a lot of disturbed people in this world.
Even if the rule is used “correctly” there is a reason you separate girls and boys in sports. No matter how gender agnostic you want to be at heart biology is biology. Boys and girls are not built the same. If your daughter is playing the low post against a boy there is a safety issue… period. I don’t care what your state of mind is. Get real. To those cheering for this… get your head out of the sand!
January 12, 2012 at 9:23 am | | Report comment
You guys need to stop saying “Educate Yourselves”. Just because we don’t want our kids in the locker room with kids of the OPPOSITE sex, that consider themselves the SAME sex, doesn’t mean we are not educated. We are well aware of what is going on in this twisted word, but that doesn’t mean we like it or accept it. And if thats that life you live, or agree with…FINE!.. But leave the rest of us out of it. Live your lives how you want to, but stop trying to force it on the rest of us, especially our kids. But our views and beliefs have absolutely NOTHING to do with being EDUCATED! Come up with another defense please and thank you!
January 12, 2012 at 10:45 am | | Report comment
Agreed! Thank you! People don’t need to tell me to educate myself, I know what’s going on, that doesn’t mean I don’t have concerns
January 12, 2012 at 10:47 am | | Report comment
I am sick of hearing that one too.
January 12, 2012 at 12:52 pm | | Report comment
Further more, from now on a bill will be referred to as a cindy.
January 13, 2012 at 4:52 am | | Report comment
Where does it end? Do you think Bruno the 6 foot 5, 220lb guy can get a scholarship to Duke as the star forward on the girl’s field-hockey team? Is Bruno going to become a discus hurler for their women’s track and field team?
January 13, 2012 at 10:21 am | | Report comment
I can’t wait until everyone gets so butt-hurt that they start allowing students into the school band when they can’t play an instrument…
January 13, 2012 at 10:22 am | | Report comment
That’s called flag twirler
January 13, 2012 at 12:47 pm | | Report comment
I think I will get a job as a Girls Field Hockey Coach in California and “recruit” some boys to play on the team and win a few State Championships!
January 13, 2012 at 11:27 am | | Report comment
California……the land of fruits and nuts…..
January 13, 2012 at 11:37 am | | Report comment
This is one of the most ridiculous legislative actions in the history of mankind.
We are aware transgender people “feel” like they are in the wrong body. Irregardless, as children and teenagers they still have the EXACT hormone configuration as all other youth with the same chromosomes.
To allow a transgender male to play on the women’s soccer team, and use their locker room is asinine.
Jiminy Crickets, Californians are breathing some second-hand smoke.
January 13, 2012 at 1:28 pm | | Report comment
Question: Assume a 15 year old transgendered individual (biologically male) wishes to use female locker room/shower facilities. If a 15 year old biological female objects to sharing the locker room (or even the shower) with him, what are her rights? Does the school have to provide an additional locker room for girls who don’t want to share a locker room with transgendered boys (and for boys who don’t want to share a locker room with transgendered girls)? Or will the school mandate that she use the same locker room?
January 13, 2012 at 2:58 pm | | Report comment
What thee idiots don’t realize is this could be the end of womens sports teams. If all of the guys who don’t make the boys basketball team tryout for the girls basketball team there will be no girls on the team. They will of course demand “affirmative action” policies so that 50% of the players on the girls team are really girls 20% would have to be transgender,20% are undecided and 10% won’t say what they are. A new department in the AD office will have to be staffed and funded by taxing marhihuana and small businesses.. Welcome to Hotel California
January 13, 2012 at 4:04 pm | | Report comment
So, does this mean that if I feel like I’m a male , even though I’m not, does that mean I can’t get pregnant
January 13, 2012 at 4:08 pm | | Report comment
The death of common sense in bonzoland.
January 13, 2012 at 7:41 pm | | Report comment
His eye is on the Sparrow and I know that He watches me…Be strong and courageous For the Lord Our God is One…Peace Be Still!
January 13, 2012 at 7:57 pm | | Report comment
I have already voted with my feet. I wouldn’t raise a youngster in California, if I received a million dollars a year, for it.
Too many people, foisting their political agenda in the schools to produce morons, instead of potential engineers, doctors and lawyers.
Remember the story about Larry King? You haven’t seen nothing yet, if this bill gets through and enacted.
January 14, 2012 at 3:39 am | | Report comment
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The Democrats running and ruining this once great State have no shame and simply don’t give a pluck.
January 15, 2012 at 1:16 pm | | Report comment
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This is what you all get for being willfully ignorant when it come to politics.
January 20, 2012 at 11:00 pm | | Report comment
I totally concur . And we wonder why California is the laughingstock of America, indeed the world….now we know!
January 10, 2012 at 5:41 pm | | Report comment
au contraire… many civilized western countries already allow this. If CA is being laughed at, it is because they are still living in the dark ages.
January 12, 2012 at 12:56 am | | Report comment