Critics Slam California Bill Permitting Preteens To Leave Parents

Leftist activists and politicians have attracted widespread criticism recently for attempting to bypass parental rights when it comes to advancing a radical transgender ideology. 

The latest example of this trend can be found in a California proposition aimed at giving therapists the authority to take children as young as 12 out of their homes — without any evidence of abuse or neglect — and place them in facilities where they can receive controversial gender transitioning treatments.

If approved, Assembly Bill 655 would also reportedly permit both licensed psychologists and unlicensed trainees to provide children with gender-based counseling in school without notifying their parents.

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo first introduced the measure in February and it was recently advanced by the Democratic-controlled state Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines. 

State Sen. Scott Wiener, who was instrumental in promoting a new law that established California as a “sanctuary state” for transgender children, was a cosponsor of the bill. He also cosponsored a bill designed to permit child abuse charges to be filed against parents who do not indulge children who claim that they are transgender.

While mainstream media reports about AB 655 portray it as a minor revision to existing law, critics on the right say it could have unimaginable repercussions for California families.

An analysis of the bill published by The Federalist, for example, determined that it “will allow children 12 years and older to place themselves into residential shelters, where they will expose themselves to CPS investigation and to being deemed a runaway, both of which can terminate parental rights.”

Current law stipulates that minors can only provide self-consent to be placed in such a facility if they are in immediate danger. Carrillo defended the rescission of that prerequisite in a recent statement supporting the bill.

“By eliminating the serious harm/incest or child abuse condition, the bill ensures that minors with bad home situations will have the option of seeking shelter at a safe place, rather than living on the street or being cajoled into staying with people who do not have their best interests at heart,” she claimed.

Attorney Nicole Pearson, on the other hand, appeared before the judiciary panel to argue against the bill’s passage, concluding: “The authors want to change the law to let a 12-year-old opt out of their home on a whim, invoking parental separation and emancipation of minors without any claim of danger or parental consent.”