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California’s proposed parental notification policy for gender identity changes fails to qualify for ballot

California’s proposed parental notification policy for gender identity changes fails to qualify for ballot

A California policy that would have required schools to notify parents if their child wants to change their gender identity did not qualify as a ballot measure for the November election. Proponents of the proposed ballot measure announced Tuesday they failed to collect the number of signatures needed to put the measure up for a vote. Supporters said the measure would have provided necessary transparency for parents, while opponents of the proposal argued it could have threatened the safety of children who live with family who are not accepting of such a change to their gender identity. Parental notification policies in some California school districts during recent months have led to legal battles with the state. SCHOOL DISTRICT TO CONTINUE FIGHT AFTER CA JUDGE BLOCKS PARENTAL NOTIFICATION POLICY: ‘BATTLE NOT OVER’ Proponents of the measure had sued state Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, over the title and summary he issued for the proposed ballot measure, accusing him of biased language that made it harder for them to collect signatures. Bonta titled the measure the “Restrict Rights of Transgender Youth” initiative, but supporters of the proposal sought to change it to the “Protect Kids of California Act” and called for an amended summary. “While we are disappointed we didn’t meet the threshold to qualify for the ballot, we are encouraged by the amount of support from every sector of the state,” campaign organizer Jonathan Zachreson said in a statement. The campaign gathered about 400,000 of the 546,651 signatures required to qualify for the ballot, according to Zachreson, who said many of those signatures came from people in Southern California counties including Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside. The proposal would also have prohibited biological males from 7th grade through college from participating in female sports, and would have banned transgender surgery for minors, with some exceptions. A Sacramento Superior Court judge sided with Bonta after a hearing last month, purporting that his description of the measure was accurate. Proponents of the proposal plan to appeal the ruling, Zachreson said. They hope a successful appeal would allow them to reopen the signature-gathering process for another opportunity at making the November ballot. CALIFORNIA JUDGE SUGGESTS SOME PARENTS POSE ‘DANGER’ TO TRANS STUDENTS AFTER BLOCKING NOTIFICATION POLICY Last week, state lawmakers announced a bill to ban school districts from adopting policies that would require parents to be notified of their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity, with some exceptions, including if the student’s safety is at risk. This comes amid nationwide efforts to address local school districts’ policies and the parental rights of transgender students. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Republican-led states across the country have aimed to impose bans on transgender medical treatment, prohibit biological males from competing in female sports and require schools to notify parents if their child wants to change their gender identity.  Some lawmakers in other states have introduced bills with broad language mandating that parents be notified of any changes to their child’s emotional health or well-being. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Top adviser to Dem Senate candidate posted photo with religious leader who compared Jews to termites

Top adviser to Dem Senate candidate posted photo with religious leader who compared Jews to termites

FIRST ON FOX: A top political adviser to a House Democrat, who is running for the Senate in a state that has become a hotbed for anti-Israel activism, attended a convention organized by one of the most notorious antisemites in the United States. Democratic Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s deputy political director, Terra Defoe, posted on Facebook in 2017 about her “full week” of “supporting the Nation of Islam and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan” at the Nation of Islam’s “Saviours’ Day Convention.” Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, has been vocal about what he thinks of Jews, comparing them to termites and saying they are “Satanic.” “Great time with my Brothers at Savior’s Day Convention,” Defoe said, including the names of some of the Nation of Islam activists she attended with. ‘SATANIC MINDS’: NAACP LEADER WHO GAVE BIDEN AWARD INVITED NOTORIOUS ANTISEMITE TO HIS CHURCH MULTIPLE TIMES One of the photos DeFoe posted included Farrakhan and a smiling Mike Duggan, the Democratic mayor of Detroit recently praised by President Biden at the NAACP dinner earlier this month, alongside Nation of Islam members. Duggan has also visited the Biden White House multiple times. A spokesperson for Duggan claimed “the mayor has never attended a Saviours’ day event.” “This was a private meeting. At the meeting, the mayor did address the issue of antisemitic language directly with Minister Farrakhan,” John Roach, director of media relations for the City of Detroit told Fox News Digital. “The mayor has made it a practice to meet with an entire range of political voices, from far right wing voices, including several top officials in the Trump administration, and far left wing voices, including many activist groups.” Farrakhan has praised Duggan multiple times, including at this year’s Saviours’ Day convention in Detoit, where he thanked him and the deputy mayor for the “wonderful and kind way you have received us.” In 2017, DeFoe read a proclamation from Duggan’s office to the participants of the convention welcoming the convention “home” to Detroit, according to the Nation of Islam’s “Final Call” newsletter. Defoe’s personal website lists multiple political positions she has held, including serving as a Detroit Delegation Organizer to the Michigan House Democrats and a senior adviser to Duggan. She has also worked in ministry and has served as the host of a cable television talk show called “On the Floor” with Dr. Terra DeFoe, which airs in Detroit. Between July 2023 and March 2024, DeFoe received almost $60,000 from Slotkin’s campaign for a range of payments, including salary, stipends, and reimbursements, according to FEC records reviewed by Fox News Digital. March 2024 disbursements are from the most up-to-date public filings, so the amount will likely be higher when July’s report is released. LEFT-WING ACTIVIST WHO HIRED ONE OF FARRAKHAN’S ‘TOP SOLDIERS’ HAS VISITED BIDEN WHITE HOUSE 7 TIMES In 2019, two years after DeFoe attended the Nation of Islam convention, she invited Troy Muhammad onto her talk show. Muhammad, who serves as a “State Representative for Minister Louis Farrakhan and Minister of Muhammad Mosque No. 1” and was pictured in DeFoe’s 2017 Facebook post, was described by DeFoe in the introduction as a “valued community leader in Detroit.” The interview, which lasted nine minutes, according to an archived copy, did not include any questions about Farrakhan’s controversial antisemitic comments. “Elissa Slotkin is running to the radical antisemitic fringes of the Democratic Party to win her primary campaign against Hill Harper,” a national GOP strategist told Fox News Digital.  Farrakhan has compared Jewish people to termites, praised Hitler as a “great man” and has become one of the most controversial religious figures in the United States due to his derogatory comments about Israel. Since taking leadership of the Nation of Islam in the late 1970s, Farrakhan has been accused of antisemitism and homophobia for his comments and sermons. Farrakhan has blamed Jews for, among other things, the slave trade, Jim Crow and black oppression in general. During a speech in Chicago in 1996, Farrakhan denounced Jews as “the synagogue of Satan.” “Louis Farrakhan is an unabashed Jew hater who has used his very public platform to spread abhorrent antisemitic stereotypes, while at the same time recruiting and developing a veritable army of followers indoctrinated into the cult of hatred towards Jews and marginalized communities,” Brooke Goldstein, human rights attorney and executive director of The Lawfare Project, told Fox News Digital earlier this year. “Farrakhan, whose support for, and appreciation of, Islamist regimes like Iran, which deprive their own citizens of basic human rights while exporting global terrorism, has spread vitriol accusing Jews of, among many other things, seeking to manipulate and exploit Black people.” Slotkin, who is Jewish, has spoken out against the violence that has unfolded on college campuses as part of the anti-Israel protests and called on universities to do more to keep students safe from antisemitism. Fox News Digital reached out to Slotkin’s office and campaign but did not receive a response.

‘Kind of scary’: Controversial medical procedure may soon be legal in another blue state

‘Kind of scary’: Controversial medical procedure may soon be legal in another blue state

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). An 85-year-old former doctor turned himself in to face manslaughter charges in upstate New York in February after police and medical personnel determined he had traveled to New York from Arizona to help a woman commit suicide.  Several New York lawmakers are now rallying behind individuals like Stephen Miller, the former doctor, to make sure people like him will not land in jail in the future for participating in assisted suicide. Legislation pending in the New York assembly and state senate called Medical Aid in Dying would give terminally ill people the option to choose the time of their death. The long-time sponsor of the bill thinks she is very close to getting the legislation passed. VIRGINIA PAVES THE WAY FOR MARIJUANA SALES, ASSISTED SUICIDE AS ASSEMBLY DEADLINE LOOMS “I am so hopeful,” New York State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin told Fox News Digital. “We’re very, very close. I’d say an excellent chance of passing, but not 100%.” MINNESOTA LAWMAKERS INITIATE DEBATE ON PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE BILL Paulin, a Democrat, has championed the bill since 2015. Just one year after she proposed the Medical Aid in Dying Act, her family learned a sister’s previous cancer diagnosis had returned. “At the end, the pain was so severe that she only had the choice of taking such severe meds that essentially put her to sleep or staying up talking to us, which was her preference,” Paulin said. “Every few minutes when she wasn’t taking the meds that would knock her out, she’d be screaming, ‘When am I gonna die already?’”  The assemblywoman concedes that since assisted suicide was not an option for her sister, she never discussed with her whether she would like to pursue that option. Multiple polls have shown New Yorkers support Medical Aid in Dying by a 2-1 margin, but there are some policy experts who have concerns. CALIFORNIA SENATOR PUSHES ‘DEATH ON DEMAND’ ASSISTED SUICIDE MEASURE Alex Thompson, the advocacy director for the New York Association on Independent Living, said people with disabilities already face difficulties getting the care they need, prompting him to raise concerns about assisted suicide. “There are a lot of concerns from our community, especially about access to medical care, insurance denial, all of the things that people with disabilities regularly experience,” Thompson told Fox News Digital. “It’s kind of scary that, you know, you’re not able to get access to treatment that you could be referred to assisted suicide.”  Thompson also voiced concerns that once the laws are on the books, whatever protections were in the original legislation could then be expanded upon. “There is always a path to expansion. When they frame it in New York, and I hear advocates of the bill in New York say that it’s very limited, and it has all these protections.” Thompson said.  He cited two lawsuits in New Jersey and Vermont he says seek to expand those states’ original conditions for assisted suicide. Both of those lawsuits are demanding assisted suicide in those states not be limited to just their residents. “There are a lot of concerns about [how] that’s probably what they’re going to do in New York,” Thompson said. TOP MASSACHUSETTS COURT RULES AGAINST OVERTURNING LAW PROHIBITING PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE Assisted suicide laws have been on the books in Canada since 2016. Last year, Canadian lawmakers began considering whether a mental illness diagnosis could be a sole qualifier for people to seek assisted suicide.  The New York Post reported this month that a 29-year-old, physically healthy Dutch woman has been granted the right to assisted suicide due to her mental illness that includes chronic depression, anxiety, trauma, borderline personality disorder and autism. Assemblywoman Paulin assures that these types of diagnoses will not be sufficient for approval to utilize  Medical Aid in Dying in New York.  “We have the strongest protections in the New York bill of any state and that would not be considered eligible,” she said. “The bill requires you to be essentially dying within six months. And that has to be attested to by your physician and then a second physician. So, two doctors have to sign off.” There are 10 states in the U.S. where assisted suicide is legal: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Washington, D.C. also authorized it.