How CA is protecting transgender youth in new Trump era

In 2022 California declared itself a refuge for transgender health care after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law ensuring gender-affirming care for California minors and those living outside the state.

Now more than a month into his second term, President Donald Trump is testing California’s sanctuary status — and some young transgender Californians say they are living in fear, writes CalMatters’ Jocelyn Wiener and Kristen Hwang.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has issued executive orders to recognize only two biological sexes; threaten funding for schools that support transgender students; prohibit transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports; and ban gender-affirming care for people under 19, describing it as “chemical and surgical mutilation.”

The orders have had an immediate effect in California: Children’s Hospital Los Angeles temporarily stopped transgender health services for anyone under 19. (Though the hospital reversed course after the California Department of Justice sent a warning letter.) Stanford University also plans to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, in compliance with the federal administration.

LGBTQ advocates say the federal government’s anti-trans policies are leading to some normalization of prejudice against transgender people. They also say there have been dramatic increases in depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts among transgender youth.

On the day after the Nov. 5 election, The Trevor Project, a nonprofit dedicated to LGBTQ suicide prevention, logged a nearly 700% increase in contacts to its mental health crisis hotline. 

Daniella, a 20-year-old transgender college student in the San Diego area said a man recently burst into her classroom and verbally harassed students and the professor over their decision to list their gender pronouns. The man was not enrolled in the class, Daniella said. 

• Daniella, who requested to be identified only by her first name: “It was literally terrifying. This is the new normal. That is what this society is coming to because that is what people see from leadership.”

Read more here.

For the past nine months, local governments across California have been cracking down on public camping after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last June granted cities more authority to clear homeless encampments. 

But one case — involving the city of Vallejo, an unhoused resident and a successful (albeit possibly temporary) federal injunction — has legal experts and attorneys representing homeless plaintiffs paying close attention.

As CalMatters’ Marisa Kendall explains, for nearly two years Evelyn Alfred has been living in a makeshift shelter next to a residential Vallejo neighborhood. In October, the city informed 64-year-old Alfred that it intended to remove her camp. But Vallejo, according to court documents, does not provide shelter or transitional housing.

So Alfred sued, with her lawyers arguing that she’d be endangered if she were forced to leave her camp. They also claimed Vallejo violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to accommodate Alfred’s disabilities when it tried clearing her camp.

Despite disagreeing with the ADA argument, a U.S. District Judge ultimately sided with Alfred. And as the case proceeds, either through trial or settlement, Alfred can remain where she is.

Read more here.

In response to the January L.A. County wildfires, many state lawmakers sought to cut bureaucratic red tape and speed up reconstruction. Now, a new legislative report underscores the need to make government reviews of various housing, environmental and infrastructure projects more efficient, writes CalMatters’ Ben Christopher.

Led by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat, the Assembly’s select committee on permitting reform released its final fact-finding report examining why it takes California so long to build apartment buildings, wind farms, public transit and other projects. The culprit? Permitting processes that are “time consuming, opaque, confusing, and favor process over outcomes,” said the report.

Though it does not offer precise recommendations, the report offers insight about the potential opportunities for change that bills from this current session would address, such as allowing third-party experts to approve project plans.

• Wicks, to CalMatters: “Right now, there are too many opportunities in the process to put a wrench in the gears. There will be a cost for us Democrats on the ballot in the future if we don’t fix that problem.”

Read more here.

After directing state workers back to the office at least two days a week last year, Gov. Newsom issued an executive order Monday requiring a minimum of four in-person days. Find out when this policy is expected to start and how many workers this will affect from CalMatters’ Alexei Koseff.