California Trans and Nonbinary Youth on Why Forced Outing Is Dangerous

As school districts adopt anti-transgender policies, many trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming students are feeling uncomfortable and unsafe.

The Los Angeles Times has taken a look at the effect of these policies in California. Several districts in conservative areas of the largely liberal state have adopted policies that deny students use of their chosen name and pronouns if they don’t have parental permission, force school officials to out them to their parents, and more.

“Multiple trans kids are having to use their deadname,” Max Ibarra, a trans high school senior in the Chino Valley Unified School District, told the Times. “They can’t start their new school year by being themselves, because if they do, they will be outed to their families, and there are many cases where that’s not safe.”

Ibarra is fortunate in having a family that supports their identity, the youth said. But many students don’t.

Celeste Stoller, an agender seventh-grader in the Murrieta Unified School District, likewise has a supportive family but says for students who don’t, forced disclosure “could put them into dangerous situations with their family and their households. I just don’t think that’s right.”

Chino Valley, Murrieta, Temecula Valley Unified; Rocklin Unified, Anderson Union High School District, and Orange Unified are among the California school districts that have enacted forced outing and other anti-trans measures. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued Chino Valley, resulting in a temporary restraining order against enforcement of that district’s policy, and has warned others that such policies constitute illegal discrimination in the state.

Avery Poznanski, a nonbinary youth who graduated from a Murrieta high school in 2021, said they attended an August meeting where the district’s policy was debated, and the school board president showed indifference to the possibility of violence against young people who are outed to their parents.

“Yes, there’ll be a couple of parents that are going to explode,” board President Paul Diffley said at the meeting, according to the Times. “There are parents that will explode for lots of different things: ‘You didn’t make the baseball team? Whack.’ ‘You couldn’t do this. You couldn’t do that. What’s wrong with you?’ I understand that, but I think on the whole, the majority — and we’re dealing with the majority here — need to have direct, honest contact from their teacher to their parents.”

“We’re talking about safety from physical harm,” Poznanski commented. “And you passed the policy and you said that you don’t care.”

Stoller said that even with a supportive family, coming out is difficult, and young people need to have some control over the process. They addressed the issue at a Murrieta school board meeting in September. “You are the adults here, and the children of this school district are leaning on you to ensure that they aren’t put directly into harm’s way,” Stoller told the board. “All I want is for myself and others to feel safe. But that simply can’t happen when the adults in the situation could only feel comfortable when children fear their teachers, their parents, their peers, and worst of all, themselves. I’m scared. What does that say about you?”