A California law requiring major retailers to have gender-neutral toy aisles went into effect Monday. Passed by a 49-16 majority in the state legislature in September 2021 and later signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, the law mandates that department stores that sell child care items or toys, physically located in California, and with a total of 500 or more employees “maintain a gender-neutral section or area.”
The designation of aisles is at the retailer's discretion, according to the law, “in which a reasonable selection of children's items and toys shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed to girls or boys.”
California Democratic Rep. Evan Low introduced the bill after reportedly talking to an eight-year-old girl who asked, “Why should a store tell me what a girl's shirt or toy is?” according to CNN.
Low in the past co-authored a law proposed by progressive Sen. Scott Wiener that enshrines tourism for child gender transition procedures and hormone injections, considered child abuse by Republican states like Texas.
The law makes California a “sanctuary state” for children from other states to receive gender reconstruction surgery and hormone therapy without their parents' knowledge or consent.
The law includes several provisions designed to protect residents of Republican states that have banned gender transitions in children from lawsuits. Under the law, California courts and lawyers are prohibited from enforcing subpoenas imposed by other states requiring health care providers to disclose when they perform such medical procedures on minors.
Low told CNN that the toy law is actually an affirmation of childhood innocence rather than a deliberate confusion of the gender-specific natural recreational interests of young children.
“The bill will help children express themselves freely and without bias. We need to let children be children,” Low said.
Stores that refuse to comply with the law can be penalized with a $250 fine for the first violation. They could be fined $500 for subsequent violations, according to the bill.
“We should all have compassion for people who experience gender dysphoria,” California Family Council President Jonathan Keller told CNN after the bill's introduction. “But activists and state legislators have no right to force retailers to adopt government-approved messages about sexuality and gender. It violates free speech and is simply wrong.”
Although Newsom has approved most state measures enforcing gender ideology, in September the governor vetoed a bill that would have required parents to demonstrate affirmation of their children's gender identity in custody court battles. His argument against the bill was that it would combine the executive and legislative powers to unfairly pressure the judiciary.
Under California Bill AB957, judges would have a legal obligation to specifically consider whether parents affirmed their child's gender identity or gender expression when determining “the health, safety, and well-being of the child.” The California State Assembly passed the bill strictly along party lines in September.
©2023 National Review. Published with permission. Original in English: Gender-Neutral Toy Aisles Now Required in California
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