California Democrats are pushing Assembly Bill 655, reportedly allowing therapists to approve a 12-year-old to live in housing facilities without parental consent or evidence of abuse at home.
The bill, introduced by Assembly Member Wendy Carrillo in February and recently approved by Democrats on the state Senate Judiciary Committee, allows minors to receive gender identity counsel from school psychologists, therapists, and trainees without parental knowledge.
The co-author of the bill is state Senator Scott Wiener.
Wiener was previously involved in a bill calling parents who do not affirm their child’s gender identity child abusers.
Under existing law, a minor at least 12-years-old can “consent to mental health treatment or counseling on an outpatient basis, or to residential shelter services, if the minor is mature enough to participate intelligently in the outpatient services or residential shelter services, as specified, and either the minor would present a danger of serious physical or mental harm to themselves or to others or if the minor is the alleged victim of incest or child abuse.”
Assembly Bill 655 eliminates the requirement that in order to provide consent, the minor must be in danger of harm.
“By eliminating the serious harm/incest or child abuse condition, the bill ensures that minors with bad home situations will have the option of seeking shelter at a safe place, rather than living on the street or being cajoled into staying with people who do not have their best interests at heart,” Carillo explained.
AB655 also states that a “professional person” may be “a registered psychologist, a registered psychological assistant, a psychological trainee, an associate clinical social worker, a social work intern, a clinical counselor trainee working under the supervision of a licensed professional, and a board-certified psychiatrist.”
Reporting from The Blaze:
Nicole Pearson, an attorney who gave testimony against the bill to a state Senate panel, said, "The authors want to change the law to let a 12-year-old opt out of their home on a whim, invoking parental separation and emancipation of minors without any claim of danger or parental consent. ... This is child emancipation." Opponents of the legislation also noted that by "granting such discretionary power to professionals, AB 665 undermines the fundamental role of parents in the lives of their children and disregards their inherent right to make informed decisions regarding their child’s welfare."
