SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Last week, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction blocking a California law that enabled public schools to keep a child’s gender confusion secret from their parents. AB 1955, enacted in 2024, prohibited schools from requiring that parents be notified when their child expresses gender confusion such as using a different name, pronouns, of identifying as a different gender. Essentially, the law aimed to allow schools to withhold “gender transitions” from parents if the child wanted it kept secret from them.

In City of Huntington Beach v. Newsom, the three-judge panel unanimously but narrowly ruled to block the law only for the parents who brought the lawsuit and for any “objecting parents” who desire to be informed of such information. The preliminary injunction was issued under a “pending appeal” status, whereby litigation will continue toward a permanent ruling. 

The Ninth Circuit panel initially denied the injunction request, but then ruled in favor of the parents after the U.S. Supreme Court recently sided with parents in a separate case that directly challenged gender secrecy policies in California schools. In Mirabelli v. Bonta, a parental challenge to gender secrecy laws that originated before AB 1955 was enacted, SCOTUS concluded that withholding gender information from parents, namely those who have religious objections to gender ideology, is an “intrusion on parents’ Free Exercise rights.”

The Ninth Circuit panel acknowledged Mirabelli stating that an injunction here “promotes child safety by guaranteeing fit parents a role in some of the most consequential decisions in their children’s lives.” 

The court also reiterated that “parents—not the State—have primary authority with respect to the upbringing and education of children” and “have the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health.” The Ninth Circuit concluded that AB 1955 “likely deprives [parents] of their constitutional rights.”

According to Defending Education, a grassroots organization promoting non-political education in the public classroom, at least 1,217 U.S. school districts have adopted secrecy policies to keep parents in the dark regarding any change in their child’s gender-related behavior. The policies span across 37 states covering more than 21,000 schools with more than 12 million children enrolled. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The Ninth Circuit’s ruling affirms the state has no business keeping secrets from parents. Gender secrecy policies put teachers and parents at odds when they should be united toward a child’s well-being. Moreover, parents have the right to direct the upbringing of their children. All parental exclusion policies should be eliminated nationwide.” 

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