A Sacramento based group, Privacy For All Students, a coalition of conservative groups has filed a lawsuit Thursday against the California Secretary of State and two counties. The are trying to overturn a new California law allowing transgender students to choose public school restrooms and sports teams that correspond with their expressed genders claiming state officials are unfairly refusing to count signatures seeking a referendum.
It states a courier delivered signatures collected in Tulare ahead of a deadline of November 10 but offices were closed early before the three-day weekend. In Mono County, a courier dropped the signatures in a county mail slot a day before the deadline but workers did not return to their jobs until the deadline had passed according to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs say the secretary of state’s office is refusing to validate the signature from the two counties.
Opponents of the law which goes into effect on January 1st said they have collected enough signatures for an initiative that would repeal it. The coalition submitted 620,000 signatures to get the initiative on the November 2014 ballot, said Frank Schubert, political strategist handling the signature gathering effort. At least 505,000 signatures of registered voters must be verified through a random sampling to qualify. Following that, the state would likely order a full review before the measure could be placed on a ballot.
California is the first state to pass a transgender law allowing such choices by K-12 students which gives them the choice of playing on boys or girls sports teams and also allows them to choose which restroom they use. Opponents say the law violates the privacy of the majority of students and some might try to claim to be another gender simply to gain access to bathrooms of the opposite sex.
The goal of the law is reported to be to reduce discrimination against transgender students.