SACRAMENTO, July 22, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A California appeals court last week unanimously struck down a state policy that forces healthcare providers to use transgender pronouns.
The California Third District Court of Appeals handed down a 3-0 decision in Taking Offense v. California on Friday, ruling against a provision in Senate Bill 219 that requires nursing staff to refer to residents by their “preferred name or pronouns.”
Senate Bill 219, enacted in 2017, also mandates that long-term care facilities place gender-confused individuals in rooms based on their “gender identity” and let them use bathrooms “available to other persons of the same gender identity.” Violations could result in a $1,000 fine or up to one year in jail, according to California Family Council.
Taking Offense, an unincorporated association, challenged the provisions on pronouns and room assignments, saying that the coercive transgender pronouns rules violated First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, and freedom of thought and belief. Taking Offense described nursing home staff as “virtual subjects and slaves” and transgender people as “kings and masters over the rest of the people” under Senate Bill 219.
California’s Third District Court agreed that the 2017 law violated free speech rights and noted that “the First Amendment does not protect
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