This news is a little late, but I wanted to verify some things, as I’d seen a few different versions of the story in the press. In short, the religious conservative-based effort to overturn California Assembly Bill 1266, which would legalize at a state level the right of students to use bathroom and locker facilities concordant with their gender, has passed a milestone. It did not have enough signatures to pass, but it did come within 5%, which means there is now a mandatory recount of every signature, and there will be court battles in many critical counties as a result.

The losers in this are the transgender kids in California, but also all transgender persons in the United States. If this ballot initiative passes, then it will be a referendum to repeal AB 1266 this year, and the deep pockets of religious conservatives will open wide to put lurid and disgusting propaganda about transgender persons into every form of media in California.

This fight is important, and the outcome by no means certain either way.

AB 1266: Election officials must validate every referendum signature.