Charlie Kirk Confronts Newsom Over Barring Parents From Knowing Child Identifies As Trans

Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk confronted Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom over a state law prohibiting any requirement for schools to notify parents about changes to their child’s gender identity.

Newsom signed the “Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY) Act” in July 2024, allowing school administrators to keep any changes to a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation undisclosed from their families. As Kirk confronted Newsom on the legislation, the governor argued that the law simply states that parents cannot get fired if they withhold information about a child’s identity from their parents or guardians during an interview released Thursday on his new podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom.”

“You signed a law where school districts can’t even tell parents if their kids are trans,” Kirk said, which Newsom said is “factually untrue.”

“They can, they just can’t get fired for not doing that and it wasn’t just trans,” Newsom said. “The law was explicit, said ‘you can’t be fired for not snitching on a kid’ not just for being trans, for being gay … The teachers themselves have the right, the law itself says they can , we’re not saying you can’t do that. We’re saying you shouldn’t be fired if you choose not to say ‘Johnny was talking about liking some other boy.’”

Kirk argued a teacher should inevitably be fired if they intentionally do not inform a child’s parents of any changes to their identity.

We had quite the chat! pic.twitter.com/XUjT2c5NXH