The state of California should follow in the state of Florida’s footsteps when it comes to gender identity in schools, according to a California Assembly candidate.
As previously reported, lawmakers in the Sunshine state have introduced legislation that prohibits sexual orientation lectures in K-7th grade classes based on a Parents’ Bill of Rights.
“We should model what Florida is doing. Florida is in the process of passing a law that prohibits schools from having these conversations,” said Bill Essayli, an attorney who is seeking election in District 63 of the state assembly. “It's extremely reasonable where kids at that age really shouldn't be thinking or talking about any of these matters. They are very young children and I do think there is a place for the legislature to step in and to protect children. That is one of the fundamental jobs of society is to protect the vulnerable and I can't think of a group more vulnerable than young kids.”
Essayli made the comments in response to the reported suicide of a trans teen in Arcadia whose mother, Abigail Martinez, is alleging that school authorities, instead of treating her 16-year-old daughter’s depression, influenced her to believe she was transgender.
“Schools should not be in the business of promoting or conditioning kids to make life-altering decisions like transitioning to a different gender,” Essayli told the Southern California Record. “I think that's something that has to be dealt with privately in the home between parents and their children.”
The Arcadia School District told the Daily Mail, 'We share in the sorrow and grief of the Martinez family and continue to offer our sincerest condolences.'
At a recent panel discussion hosted by the Heritage Foundation, Martinez said after her daughter, Yaeli Martinez, started showing signs of depression, she began attending meetings and other support programs that schools have implemented for transgender children.
“The school counselor was involved,” she said. “Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) was involved, and LGBTQ was in there too trying to help my daughter on the transition of being transgender. I was accused of not wanting to open my eyes. I met with the principal and with the counselor to address the situation and everyone was making things worse because the school psychologist and LGBTQ told DCFS that my daughter will be better off out of the house. They took away my daughter when she was 16 years old.”
Martinez’s daughter was placed in foster care and renamed Andrew for three years until in 2019, the 19-year old died from the impact of an oncoming train.
Martinez sued Los Angeles County and its Department of Child and Family Services in 2020.
“These radical actors at schools have their own agenda and they want to push things like transgenderism on kids for their own political reasons,” Essayli added. “It has nothing to do with the kids or what's in their best interests. It’s to advance a political ideal that is extreme and I think really dangerous. I hope this lawsuit brings attention to this and that this family gets the justice they deserve to the extent the school played any role in that child's committing suicide.”