CV NEWS FEED // A California law punishing stores that don’t have “gender neutral” children’s sections is set to go into effect next week.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1084 in October 2021. The legislation states:
This bill would require a retail department store that is physically located in California that has a total of 500 or more employees across all California retail department store locations that sells childcare items or toys to maintain a gender neutral section or area …
Beginning on January 1, 2024, the bill would make a retail department store that fails to comply with these provisions liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $250 for a first violation or $500 for a subsequent violation, as provided.
The law also specifies that the new “gender neutral” section must “be labeled at the discretion of the retailer,” and “a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys.”
FOX News reported that once the law goes into effect in the new year, “[t]raditional boys and girls sections won’t be outlawed, but a gender-neutral section must also be created.”
Greg Burt of the California Family Council (CFC) called the legislation “government-compelled speech.”
“The government is deciding to tell a religious person, could be a Muslim-owned business, that they have to use certain words to advertise toys, and those words might violate the belief systems of that particular Muslim-owned business,” Burt said.
“You got the government now dictating the signage in stores, about what words can be used to advertise products,” Burt added. “This is opening a Pandora’s Box.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk noted in an X (formerly Twitter) post earlier this month that the law “was authored by [Democratic] state Assembly member Evan Low who says the law was inspired by the 10-year-old daughter of one of his staffers.”
Low stated two years ago: “Part of it is to make sure if you’re a young girl that you can find a police car, fire truck, a periodic table or a dinosaur.”
The assemblyman went on:
And then similarly, if you’re a boy, if you’re more artistic and want to play with glitter, why not? Why should you feel the stigma of saying, ‘Oh, this should be shamed’ and going to a different location?
Children have a very unique way of saying things that provide some common sense. I think it’s important that we as a state are demonstrating our values of diversity and inclusion.
Low is currently running in a crowded race to represent a part of the heavily Democratic Silicon Valley in Congress. Longtime incumbent Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-CA, is retiring.
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh also criticized the law in an episode of his podcast a few weeks ago:
There was no toy store in California or anywhere else in America where if a girl went to buy a firetruck, there would be somebody standing and pointing and laughing at them saying, “Why are you buying that? You are a girl.”
That literally has never happened in the history of toy purchases, ever. So, this bill is at the very best totally unnecessary.
