In 2016, amid national outcry over a North Carolina law preventing transgender people from using restrooms that aligned with their gender identity, California countered with its own legislation.
Six years later, as California pushes dozens of other bills responding to anti-abortion and pro-gun legislation being passed elsewhere in the country, this 2016 ban has been thrust back in the spotlight — and seems to be facing some pushback. And amid a wave of anti-transgender laws in statehouses nationwide, the number of banned states has grown to 22 from four. The latest list was announced last month by Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is required to update the list and who voted for the bill when he was a Democratic assemblyman.
Critics say that the ban clearly is not having its desired effect, given that the list has exploded rather than shrunk. Citing the law’s many loopholes and some problems it has created for academics in California, the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board last week recommended the law be repealed and a Sacramento Bee columnist said it is pointless.