CALIFORNIA REQUIRES GENDER-NEUTRAL TOY AISLES

National Review

 

Gender-Neutral Toy Aisles Now Required in California

By CAROLINE DOWNEY

January 2, 2024 5:35 PM

 

A California law requiring major retailers to have gender-neutral toy aisles went into effect on Monday.

 

Passed by a 49–16 majority in the state legislature in September 2021 and subsequently signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, the law mandates that retail department stores that sell childcare 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 the aisles is at the retailer’s discretion, according to the law, “in which a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys.”

 

Democratic California assemblyman Evan Low introduced the bill after he allegedly spoke with an 8-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 state senator Scott Wiener enshrining tourism for child gender transition procedures and hormone injections, which Republican states like Texas have deemed child abuse. The law makes California a “sanctuary state” for out-of-state children to receive gender reconstructive surgery and hormone therapy without the knowledge or consent of their parents. The law includes a number of provisions designed to insulate residents of red states that have banned child gender-transition from prosecution. Under the law, California courts and lawyers are prohibited from enforcing subpoenas imposed by other states demanding that health-care providers disclose when they perform such medical procedures on minors.

 

Low told CNN that the toy-aisle law is actually an affirmation of childhood innocence rather than a deliberate confusion of natural sex-specific recreational interests for young kids.

 

“Her bill will help children express themselves freely and without bias. We need to let kids be kids,” Low said.

 

Stores that refuse to adhere to the law could be penalized with a $250 fine for the first violation. They could be hit with $500 penalties for subsequent violations, according to the bill.

 

“We should all have compassion for individuals experiencing 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 espouse government-approved messages about sexuality and gender. It’s a violation of free speech and it’s just plain wrong.”

 

Though Newsom has rubber-stamped most state measures imposing gender ideology, in September, the governor vetoed a bill that would have required parents to demonstrate affirmation of their child’s gender identity in custody court battles. His argument against the bill was that it would combine the executive and legislative powers to strong-arm the judicial branch unfairly.

 

Under California Bill AB957, judges would have been legally obligated to specifically consider whether parents have affirmed their child’s gender identity or gender expression in determining “the health, safety, and welfare of the child.” The California State Assembly passed the bill along strictly party lines in September.