Rep. Doug LaMalfa makes anti-transgender statement while addressing Chico school board

Northern California Congressman Doug LaMalfa waded Wednesday into the debate over whether schools should be required to disclose to parents that their child is transgender.

LaMalfa, a six-term Republican, spoke during public comment Wednesday at a meeting of the Chico Unified School District Special Board of Education. The district is defending a lawsuit from a parent who contends the district helped her child secretly transition their gender identity.

“These are minors who are making lifetime, life-changing decisions,” LaMalfa said.

The congressman faced a chorus of boos and cheers as he went on to conflate sex assigned at birth with gender identity, incorrectly stating that “it’s either XX or it’s XY, the proof is in the DNA.”

Such a statement disregards that intersex people exist, and also that gender identity is a social construct, not a biological one.

LaMalfa said that he sides with the plaintiff in the Chico school district lawsuit.

“Schools have really overstepped their bounds, overstepped their responsibilities when they’re doing this,” he said.

In March, LaMalfa introduced legislation that would withhold federal funding from schools that fail to require parental permission before a student can change their name or pronouns at school. While that bill may pass in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, it would likely fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The district maintains that it has not violated the law.

“Further, we believe that this case should not be directed at Chico Unified or any individual school district. If the plaintiff desires a change in the law and/or the guidelines set forth by the California Department of Education, we encourage them to take action with the state and/or federal government to enact such changes,” wrote Superintendent Kelly Staley in a March letter to parents.

A Republican California Assemblyman, Bill Essayli of Riverside, has introduced a bill that would force teachers and other school employees to out transgender students to their parents. That bill likewise faces a highly unlikely path to passage, given that the State Legislature is controlled by a Democratic supermajority.