During a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) discussed proposed legislation about parental consent for students' pronoun changes.
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00:00The gentleman from California, Representative Kiley.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chair, for bringing this bill forward.
00:06I'm glad to co-sponsor it, and it's a bill that has become necessary
00:11because of the way that many districts across the country,
00:15and in the case of California, an entire state,
00:18have interposed themselves between students and their parents
00:22in the most abhorrent of ways.
00:25So let's just look at what's happened in my state of California.
00:28You have many, many districts, many documented cases
00:31of a school that has actively encouraged a child
00:35to identify with a new gender.
00:39And they did this without the parent's knowledge,
00:42without the parent's consent,
00:44and then they lied to the parents about it.
00:46We have many documented cases of a parent confronting the school
00:50and the school or personnel lying about it
00:53and even fabricating and doctoring documents,
00:56changing the child's name on assignments that were handed in.
01:01I mean, just imagine what this looks like in practice
01:03if you are not allowed to say that the child is using a different name
01:07or a different gender identity.
01:09So you're using one name and one set of pronouns
01:11with the child in class, and their parents come in,
01:14and suddenly you have to switch.
01:15You're using a different name and a different set of pronouns.
01:18This is absolute madness.
01:20So because of the prevalence of this across our state,
01:24a number of responsible districts came forward and said,
01:28we're not going to do this.
01:29We're going to put protections for students and their families
01:31into our district policy
01:32and say that this is something that parents have the right to know about.
01:36So how does the state respond,
01:37the attorney general with the backing of the governor?
01:39They immediately start suing these districts.
01:42They start filing lawsuits trying to get binding legal judgments
01:46that will force these districts to lie to parents.
01:50And then on top of that,
01:52the supermajority legislature passes a bill
01:56and the governor signs it that as a matter of state law
01:59says that we are not going to allow districts to tell parents the truth.
02:05Now, thankfully, many of those lawsuits are being rejected by the courts
02:10and the Trump administration has now launched an investigation
02:15challenging that new state law
02:18for violating the Federal Education Rights and Privacies Act,
02:22otherwise known as FERPA.
02:24But this bill is very necessary for a number of reasons.
02:28And, you know, the other side has brought up
02:30about how children with gender dysphoria
02:33are at an increased risk of suicide.
02:35That is precisely why this bill is so important.
02:39Think about that.
02:40You have a child who has a condition
02:42that is known to be associated
02:44with an extremely increased risk of suicidal ideations,
02:49and the district says,
02:50we're going to hide that information from parents?
02:53This is something that parents absolutely need to know about.
02:56It's monstrous to say,
02:57we're not going to let you know
02:58that your child is at an increased risk of suicide.
03:02And finally, I want to address this idea
03:03that there's somehow a contradiction
03:05between this bill and the commitment our committee has
03:08to local control and education.
03:11That is absolutely not the case.
03:13We support local control and education
03:15because we believe that curriculum and school offerings
03:18and the different options available to parents
03:20should reflect the values of the community,
03:22that there should be direct input from the community
03:24and local elected officials,
03:26and a whole host of other reasons,
03:28such as allowing for innovation
03:30and the fact that schools generally
03:33are not run best from Washington, D.C.
03:35But that doesn't mean that we can't have civil rights laws.
03:39We have civil rights laws in this country
03:41that provide a basic level of protection
03:44for the dignity of each person,
03:46and there are particular civil rights laws
03:49that are attendant to an educational context,
03:51including protections against discrimination
03:54on the basis of sex,
03:55and including FERPA,
03:56the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
04:00So we will continue to actively promote
04:02local control and education.
04:04I think we're going to see enormous progress
04:06in that respect from this committee,
04:08from the new administration,
04:09and it will have great benefits across the country.
04:11But we will not permit federal education dollars
04:15to be used to create a dangerous wall of separation
04:18between kids and their parents.
04:20I yield back.
04:21I thank the gentleman.
04:22I recognize the gentlelady from Connecticut,
04:28Representative Hayes.