On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) defended California law allowing teachers to not tell parents about students changing their gender identity by stating that under the prior law, “a teacher would be fired if a teacher did not report or snitch on a kid talking about their gender identity. I just think that was wrong. I think teachers should teach. I don’t think they should be required to turn in kids.”
After Newsom criticized Democrats, host Bill Maher asked, “So, what do you say to people who say, well, this sounds all very good, but, Governor, you were the poster boy for a lot of this stuff? I see, today, the Trump administration is — they talked about, I don’t know if this is true — but they talked about the fact that California had a rule that schools cannot be required to notify parents if their kids in school have changed their gender, their pronouns. That’s the kind of thing — even though it doesn’t affect a lot of people — that makes a lot of people go, well, you know what? That’s the party without common sense. Now, if that’s your state, how are you, are you –?”
Newsom cut in to respond, “I just disagree with that. The law was you would be fired, a teacher would be fired if a teacher did not report or snitch on a kid talking about their gender identity. I just think that was wrong. I think teachers should teach. I don’t think they should be required to turn in kids. And by the way –.”
Maher then cut in to say, “Turn in? We’re talking about their parents. How can you snitch — the idea of a snitch and a parent, to me, doesn’t compute.”
Newsom responded, “But what is the job of a teacher? It’s to teach. If Johnny’s talking about some identity issue or some issue about liking someone of the same sex, is it the teacher’s job to then report that? By the way, in this law, the teacher can still do that. But they can’t be fired if that’s not what they do. … I just think that was fair. And I don’t think that’s inappropriate.”
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