A federal judge delivered a sweeping rebuke to California on Monday, blocking the state from enforcing policies that required teachers to conceal students’ gender transitions from parents and compel educators to use preferred pronouns against their beliefs.
The ruling came in response to a class-action lawsuit brought by two Christian public school teachers who challenged California’s so-called gender secrecy rules. The teachers argued the policies forced them to lie to parents and violate their religious convictions. U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez agreed, issuing a permanent injunction that ends the state’s approach statewide.
The lawsuit, Mirabelli, et al. v. Olson, et al., was filed by the Thomas More Society on behalf of teachers Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori West. The legal group hailed the decision as a landmark victory for parents, teachers, and constitutional rights.
In a statement, the Thomas More Society said the ruling “permanently” dismantles what it described as California’s “dangerous and unconstitutional regime of gender secrecy policies in schools.” The organization said the decision restores transparency and parental involvement in public education and protects families and educators across the state, not just the original plaintiffs.
Judge Benitez framed the case around four core constitutional questions, all centered on parental rights and free speech. He asked whether parents have a right to receive information about their child’s gender identity under the Fourteenth Amendment, whether that right is also protected by the First Amendment’s free exercise of religion clause, whether religious teachers have the right to share that information with parents, and whether public school teachers have a free speech right to communicate accurate information to families.
“In each case, this Court concludes that, as a matter of law, the answer is ‘yes,’” Benitez wrote. He stated plainly that parents have a right to receive gender-related information about their children and that teachers have a corresponding right to provide truthful information to parents.
The judge sharply criticized California’s policies for erecting what he called a “communication barrier” between parents and teachers. He noted that wealthier families may have alternatives, such as private schools, homeschooling, or moving to different districts, but that families of modest means are effectively trapped.
“For these parents, the new policy appears to undermine their own constitutional rights,” Benitez wrote, adding that the state was asking the court to narrow long-recognized parental rights established by the U.S. Supreme Court. “That, this Court will not do,” he said.
Benitez concluded that California’s policies inflicted a threefold harm. First, he said, children are harmed when parents are excluded from information that may require guidance or mental health intervention, particularly when questions about gender identity may stem from bullying, peer pressure, or temporary impulses.
Second, he said parents are harmed when they are denied their Fourteenth Amendment right to care for and guide their children and make medical decisions, as well as when their First Amendment religious rights are burdened.
Finally, Benitez said teachers are harmed when they are forced to violate their own beliefs and conceal information they believe is vital to a student’s well-being.
The ruling delivers a major setback to California’s education policies and a significant win for parental rights advocates, affirming that schools do not have the authority to cut parents out of life-altering decisions about their children.
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