Radical Bill Will Make It Easier For ‘Trans’ Kids To Cut Legal Ties With Parents

Advocacy groups are warning that a radical new bill could make it easier for gender-confused children to legally cut parents out of their lives.

The California proposal, AB 1967, would allow minors to initiate legal emancipation from their parents while living in residential facilities like drug rehabilitation programs, youth shelters, and private alternative boarding schools. The bill — which the California Assembly passed in May, and which is moving through the state senate — is just the latest instance of California legislation that allows minors to make major decisions without parental consent by essentially electing to become wards of the state.

“This bill is part of a larger agenda designed to permit children to circumvent their parents’ refusal to consent to sex-rejecting interventions,” Erin Friday, a parental rights advocate and President of Our Duty USA, told The Daily Wire. “Children cannot obtain puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgeries without parental consent, but if a child enters foster care, he is subject to the Foster Care Bill of Rights. These rights guarantee every foster child both affirmation of a declared transgender identity and access to sex-rejecting interventions as enforceable statutory rights.”

Friday pointed to how AB 1967 builds on a bill California passed in 2023, AB 665, which allows minors ages 12 and over to receive treatment at residential shelters without parental consent if a professional deems them “mature enough to participate intelligently in the outpatient services or residential shelter services.” Language in the bill claims a high percentage of LGBTQ+ youth reported that getting “permission from their parents” was a “barrier to accessing mental health services.”

California minors can also initiate the emancipation process by alleging they’ve been emotionally abused by their parents.

“Emotional abuse claims against a parent who is raising his gender-dysphoric child as his or her sex are sufficient to place the child into foster care,” Friday told The Daily Wire. “California has been systematically passing laws to ensure that children have a simple pathway to override their parents’ decisions, to obtain access to gender interventions.”

Transgender activists believe not affirming a child’s gender identity is a form of emotional abuse. This idea was supported by the California legislature in 2023 when it passed a bill that explicitly stated parental affirmation of a minor’s gender identity was essential to the child’s “health, safety, and welfare.” After significant public outcry, the bill was vetoed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who clarified in a statement that existing California law already views parental affirmation of a child’s gender identity as a vital part of their health and safety.

Greg Burt, vice president of California Family Council, says California’s ambiguous definition of emotional abuse raises concerns over how AB 1967 could be applied to parents who affirm a child’s true sex rather than their transgender identity.

“We are ultimately concerned that the legislature believes if you’re not affirming, that you are causing psychological harm to your own child,” Burt told The Daily Wire. “We are hyper-concerned when we see bills making it easier for kids to emancipate themselves from parents — make it easy for them to run away and make it easy for them to take away parental rights if they don’t find the parent affirming. This bill is just pushing that envelope.”

Under AB 1967, if a child residing in a safe, residential facility alleges parental abuse or neglect, it will trigger a safety assessment of the custodial parent’s home. Authorities could conduct the assessment without notifying parents or physically visiting their home, Our Duty USA explained in a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing AB 1967.

“Parents do not receive any notice that a home assessment is planned or occurring. The ‘home assessment’ can legally be completed based on the child’s statements alone, without any physical visit to the parents’ home, and without the parents’ knowledge,” states the letter reviewed by The Daily Wire.

“The bill contains no exemption for minors in parent-arranged placements, no minimum age floor within the dependency framework, and puts parents and children at odds. This bill empowers (encourages) children to make claims whether founded in falsehoods against their parents, when there is no indicia of abuse or neglect, outside of being placed in a facility the child opposes. This is part of the movement to permit ‘children’ to choose their own families if they do not agree with their parents.”

The California Family Council shared similar concerns in a letter to the California Senate Judiciary Committee.

“As amended, the bill would allow a minor or a minor’s attorney to submit an affidavit alleging parental abuse or neglect by mail, facsimile, or email,” the letter states. “They accelerate state proceedings concerning a family without adding a single corresponding protection for parents. The bill is silent on whether parents must even be notified that their home is the subject of a mandated safety assessment.”

Friday told The Daily Wire the bill is of national concern because what happens legislatively in California rarely stays in California.

“California laws are routinely duplicated by other states once California shows them the way,” Friday told The Daily Wire.