Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration is suing three school districts over rules prohibiting teachers from secretly validating students’ gender transitions.
State Attorney General (AG) Matt Platkin filed criminal complaints against Manalapan-Englishtown, Marlboro and Middletown school districts on Thursday, alleging the districts’ policies violate New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination.
All three school districts recently enacted policies that require school staff to reveal a student’s transgender identity to parents, according to the three briefs filed by the AG. (RELATED: House Armed Services Committee Moves To Suspend Program Responsible For US Navy Drag Queen)
“The involuntary disclosure of students’ gender identity or gender expression will irreparably harm transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary students, who already face vastly increased and even deadly risks to their health and safety,” the briefs read.
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination requires that schools not subject students to different treatments based on their “gender identity and expression.” The New Jersey Department of Education’s Transgender Guidance also stipulates that “a school district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity” and that “parental consent is not required.”
“There is no affirmative duty for any school district personnel to notify a student’s parent or guardian of the student’s gender identity or expression,” the guidance reads.
In NJ, we’re steadfast in our commitment to protecting LGBTQ+ youth from discrimination. We’re fighting back against new policies requiring school staff to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents—policies that will endanger our students’ health and safety. https://t.co/XlPC0GM3YG
— Attorney General Matt Platkin (@NewJerseyOAG) June 22, 2023
“In New Jersey, we will not tolerate any action by schools that threatens the health and safety of our young people. Without question, the discriminatory policies passed by these Boards of Education, if allowed to go into effect, will harm our kids and pose severe risk to their safety,” AG Platkin said in a statement. “Simply put, these policies violate our laws, and we will not relent in protecting our LGBTQ+ community—especially our children—from discrimination.”
The AG is seeking a temporary restraint against the policy, and a return to previous school district policy in accordance with the Department of Education’s guidance for transgender-identified students.
The New Jersey attorney general’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for further comment on the complaints.
Some parental rights advocates warn policies that allow school staff to hide a child’s gender transition from their parents opens the door for abuse in that child’s life, and also violates basic parental rights. Sage’s Law in Virginia attempted to require parental notification of a child’s social transition. The law was named after a teen girl who was sex-trafficked and raped after the school hid her transition from her parents. Democrats have argued the law would open transgender-identified kids to abuse, and the bill was eventually defeated.
“No one told me but boys followed her, touched her, threatened violence and rape. Something happened in the boy’s bathroom but for two days the school told me nothing. They kept meeting with Sage alone, and she became so distraught they called me to pick her up,” Sage’s mother testified before the Virginia legislature in January.