As Director of Advocacy and Training I have the privilege of overseeing the legislation the Sacramento LGBT Community Center endorses and supports through the legislative process. Every year we track upwards of 80 bills and provide testimony and letters of support for those bills that are in line with our mission, vision, and values. These are the bills that our Center supported this year that have been signed into law. These bills represent hope and change for the LGBTQ+ community and are just a small part of the work we’re honored to do.
AB 587, Gabriel. Social media companies: terms of service. This bill requires social media companies, as defined, to post their terms of service (ToS) in a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of specified policies and would require a social media company to submit semiannual reports, as specified, starting January 1, 2024, to the Attorney General (AG).
AB 666, Quirk-Silva. Substance use disorder workforce development. This bill will create a workforce development program for groups who are underrepresented in the SUD treatment workforce. This bill explicitly includes LGBTQ+ people as a target group and will provide subsidies for LGBTQ+ to go to school to work in SUD treatment.
AB 1432, Low. LGBTQ+ Pride Month. This bill would require the Governor to annually proclaim the month of June, as LGBTQ+ Pride Month. (The law is being updated as it used to be LGBT Pride Month, this adds the Q+)
AB 1741, Low. Transgender Day of Remembrance. This bill would require the Governor to annually proclaim November 20 as Transgender Day of Remembrance
AB 2194, Ward. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians: continuing education: cultural competency. This bill would require that those 30 hours of approved courses of continuing pharmacy education include at least one hour of participation in a cultural competency course, as defined. The course focuses on patients who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender nonconforming, or queer, or who question their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.
AB 2315, Arambula. Community colleges: records: affirmed name and gender identification. This bill makes it so community colleges can’t charge a fee to change name and gender on records or diplomas and they now have to include spaces for chosen names on forms.
AB 2436, Bauer-Kahan. Death certificates: content. This bill would, instead, require the certificate of death to include the current first and middle names, birth last names, and the birthplaces of the parents, without reference to the parents’ gendered relationship to the decedent.
AB 2521, Santiago. Transgender, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex Fund. This bill would rename the fund as the Transgender, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex Wellness and Equity Fund and define the terms transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex.
SB 357, Wiener. Crimes: loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense. This bill would repeal those provisions related to loitering with the intent to commit prostitution and would make other conforming changes. This bill would also authorize a person convicted of a violation of loitering with the intent to commit prostitution to petition the court for the dismissal and sealing of their case, and resentencing, if applicable.
SB 923, Wiener. Gender-affirming care. This bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan, a PACE organization, a health care service plan, or a health insurer, and delegated entities, as specified, to require its staff to complete evidence-based cultural competency training for the purpose of providing trans-inclusive health care, as defined, for individuals who identify as transgender, gender diverse, or intersex (TGI).
AB 58, Salas. Pupil health: Suicide Prevention Policies: This bill requires schools to update their suicide prevention curriculum to include LGBTQ+ youth.
AB 1735, Bryan. Foster Care: Affirms the right of the child to be placed in out-of-home care according to their gender identity, regardless of the gender or sex listed in their official records.
SB 1194, Allen. Public restroom building standards. Makes it easier for facilities to build or convert existing bathrooms into gender neutral facilities.
Other bills we tracked this session:
AB 1604 – Civil Service: Upward Mobility Act of 2022
AB 1759 – Board of Behavioral Sciences: Standards for LMFTs, Social Workers, and other Professional Counselors.
AB 1914 – Resources Family Approval: Training
AB 1958 – Community College Student Access, Retention, and Debt Cancellation Program
AB 2229 – Peace Officers: Minimum Standards; Bias Evaluation
AB 2417 – Juveniles: Youth Bill of Rights
AB 2418 – Crimes: Justice Data Accountability and Transparency Act
AB 2448 – Civil Rights: Businesses: Discrimination and Harassment of Customers
AB 2466 – Foster Children: Removes various uses of “hard-to-place children” used for LGBTQ+ youth
AB 2586 – Reproductive and Sexual Health Inequities
AB 2761 – Deaths while in law enforcement custody
AB 2873 – California Tax Credit Allocation Committee: LGBT business enterprises