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They’re not interested in going into bathrooms and flaunting their physiology

The National Center for Lesbian Rights and the ACLU of California were among the bill’s supporters. Detractors, including some Republican lawmakers, said allowing students of one gender to use facilities intended for the other could invade the other students’ privacy.

Such fears are overblown, said Carlos Alcala, spokesman for the bill’s author, Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco. In general, he said, transgender students are trying to blend in and are not trying to call attention to themselves.

“They’re not interested in going into bathrooms and flaunting their physiology,” Alcala said.

He also noted that the state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, has had such a policy for nearly a decade and reported no problems. San Francisco schools also have had a policy similar to the new law, and numerous other districts signed on in support of the legislation.

“Clearly, there are some parents who are not going to like it,” Alcala said. “We are hopeful school districts will work with them so no students are put in an uncomfortable position.”

Brown signed the bill without comment. Democratic Assembly Speaker John Perez said the law “puts California at the forefront of leadership on transgender rights.”

The answer is not to force something this radical on every single grade in California

The Gay-Straight Alliance Network said two states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, have statewide policies granting the same protections, but California is the first to put them into statute and require them in all school districts.