California Family Council

08/28/2026

Hundreds of Californians rallied at the Capitol last week against AB 2624, the bill critics call the Stop Nick Shirley Act after the 24-year-old citizen journalist who exposed nonprofit fraud in state after state. Newsom signed it anyway. Greg was there and spoke.
Three California families are now asking the Supreme Court to end religious discrimination in charter homeschool programs. These programs hand parents public funds for curriculum, then forbid anything faith based. Blue Ridge Academy rejected a grammar course over one sentence: "God sends the rain to help plants grow."
And Senator Scott Wiener is taking a victory lap he did not earn. His SB 934 would have let clients sue counselors decades later over words they asked to hear. Then Los Angeles County's own Department of Mental Health warned that detransitioners could sue them too. The bill was gutted.
Plus, our Life, Family, Liberty Gala is Saturday, September 12 in Orange County with Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon. Tickets and this week's articles at californiafamily.org.

Links:

Gala
Life, Family, Liberty Gala tickets, Sept. 12, Hilton Orange County: https://watchdog.californiafamily.org/fundraising/e/2026-gala

AB 2624, the "Stop Nick Shirley Act"
Bill text and status: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2624

Greg's rally speech on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com//videos

Homeschool curriculum case, Woolard v. Thurmond

CFC article: https://www.californiafamily.org/2026/08/supreme-court-asked-to-end-cas-double-standard-on-homeschool-curriculum/
First Liberty Institute case page: https://firstliberty.org/news/first-liberty-asks-full-federal-appeals-court-to-stop-discrimination-against-california-families/

Earlier CFC coverage of the Ninth Circuit stage: https://www.californiafamily.org/2025/12/religious-liberty-on-trial-charter-homeschool-families-demand-the-ninth-circuit-end-anti-christian-discrimination/

SB 934 and the counseling ban

CFC article: https://www.californiafamily.org/2026/08/how-fear-of-detransitioner-lawsuits-gutted-senator-wieners-attempt-to-bankrupt-christian-counselors/

SB 934 bill text and amendment history: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB934

Chiles v. Salazar opinion, decided March 31, 2026:https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-539_fd9g.pdf
Wiener's own release: https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/news/senator-wieners-bill-strengthen-californias-conversion-therapy-ban-heads-governor

08/27/2026

“Let’s Make CA a Place We Want Our Children to Live In” CFC Vice President Greg Burt Speaks at Nick Shirley Rally!

Watch the entire speech at the link in our bio!

08/26/2026

Supreme Court Asked to End CA’s Double Standard on Homeschool Curriculum

Three California families just took their fight for faith-filled homeschooling to the highest court in the land.

On August 20, 2026, First Liberty Institute, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and King & Spalding LLP filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Ninth Circuit decision that lets California charter schools strip funding and academic credit from homeschool families the moment their curriculum turns out to be Christian. The case is Woolard v. Thurmond. It could decide whether a public program that hands parents the freedom to choose their children’s own curriculum can turn around and punish the parents who choose a Christian one.

Read more below. . .

Three California families just took their fight for faith-filled homeschooling to the highest court in the land. On August 20, 2026, First Liberty Institute, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and King & Spalding LLP filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Ninth Circuit decision that le...

08/25/2026

California says objecting to a man in the women’s restroom is s*xual harassment. This is their training video.

California has required s*xual harassment training since 2005, but two bills transformed it into something else entirely. In 2017, State Senator Ricardo Lara authored SB 396, requiring employers with 50 or more employees to add a new component to supervisor training: instruction on harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and s*xual orientation. It took effect January 1, 2018.

The following year, State Senator Holly Mitchell authored SB 1343. It kept the gender ideology component and dropped the threshold from 50 employees to five, while adding a new one-hour requirement for every rank-and-file employee, not just supervisors. Both laws are now folded into Government Code section 12950.1, and the next compliance deadline for every covered employer is January 1, 2027.

The reach of this law surprises most people. An employer must train its California employees so long as it has five or more employees anywhere in the country, even if only one of them lives in California and even if the company’s headquarters sits a thousand miles from Sacramento. That is exactly how McCourt’s employer, a Bible software company based out of state, got pulled in. Two employees in California. Five-plus nationwide. Full compliance required.

08/24/2026

Standing for Life is not a political take - it is a biblical conviction.

08/24/2026

To get past the Supreme Court, Senator Scott Wiener had to write SB 934 in neutral language. It banned any licensed provider from directing a patient toward a predetermined outcome on s*xual orientation or gender identity. Either direction.

That wording was the whole undoing.

County mental health departments read it and saw their own social workers, the ones who steer gender-confused kids toward transition as a matter of routine. On July 16, Los Angeles County’s Legislative Affairs office put the warning in writing to the Board of Supervisors. The Department of Mental Health said the bill could create liability beyond the author’s intent, reaching care that fully complied with national clinical standards, and flagged the risk of claims from individuals who later detransition.

Then seven organizations told the Legislature to strip the liability or face their opposition. The California State Association of Counties. The California Association of Joint Powers Authorities. The California Association of School Business Officials. Public Risk Innovation Solutions and Management. The Rural County Representatives of California. The Schools Excess Liability Fund. Urban Counties of California.

Not one of them is a conservative group. They are the organizations that insure California’s local governments.

On August 13, Assembly Appropriations stripped the entire lawsuit structure, 11 to 4. The Assembly passed the remains 58 to 18. The Senate concurred 27 to 9. It heads to Governor Newsom.

Wiener called it a big win.

Full article at the link in bio.

08/21/2026

Have you heard!! A new HHS report raises allegations of fraudulent billing for transgender procedures on minors as AB 1876 would restrict insurers from denying coverage for those same treatments.

Read full article below...

A new HHS report raises allegations of fraudulent billing for transgender procedures on minors as AB 1876 would restrict insurers from denying coverage for those same treatments. Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report titled "Wolves in White Coats." It uncovere...

08/20/2026

CA Bill to Bar S*x Offenders From Office Changes to Allow an Even Bigger Loophole

A bill designed to keep convicted s*x offenders out of public office cleared the Assembly floor 67 to 0. In June, it came out of the Senate Elections Committee with a hole in it big enough for child predators to walk through. On August 4, lawmakers rewrote the bill again. They didn’t close that hole. They widened it, and made it harder to see.

Background:
AB 2691, authored by Assemblywoman Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo), is called the Public Trust Protection Act. It would disqualify people convicted of felony s*xual assault or human trafficking from running for or holding state or local elected office. California Family Council supports that idea.

On June 24, the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee, chaired by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), added language exempting felony so**my, oral copulation, and s*xual pe*******on when the victim is a minor aged 14 to 17. CFC Vice President Greg Burt testified against the exemption on June 30, telling the committee no one could explain why children deserved less protection than adults. Senator Steven Choi (R-Irvine) agreed, casting the lone “no” vote. The bill advanced 4 to 1 anyway, with the exemption intact.

What Changed on August 4:
Then, on August 4, Addis amended the bill again. The exemption for teens aged 14 to 17 is gone from the bill text. In its place, she rewrote the entire definition of “s*xual assault.” Instead of listing specific penal code sections, the bill now defines a disqualifying “s*xual assault” as any crime that requires a person to register for life as a s*x offender, California’s most severe registration tier.

To understand what that means, it helps to understand how California’s s*x offender registry actually works. Every registerable s*x offense falls into one of three tiers:

Tier 1: requires registration for 10 years. It covers misdemeanor s*x offenses and the least serious felony s*x offenses.

Tier 2: requires registration for 20 years. It covers felony s*x offenses that state law separately classifies as “serious” or “violent,” along with a short list of specifically named crimes.

Tier 3: requires registration for life. It is reserved for the most serious s*x crimes: forcible r**e, forcible so**my, aggravated s*xual assault of a child, and similar offenses.

Under the bill the Assembly passed, a felony conviction under any of six penal code sections covering r**e, so**my, oral copulation, and s*xual pe*******on disqualified a candidate, full stop. Under the August 4 rewrite, a conviction only disqualifies a candidate if it happens to fall into Tier 3. A conviction that falls into Tier 1 or Tier 2, no matter how serious the underlying crime actually was, no longer counts.

That is not a narrower version of the exemption lawmakers added in June. It is a broader one.

Continue reading below. . .

A bill designed to keep convicted s*x offenders out of public office cleared the Assembly floor 67 to 0. In June, it came out of the Senate Elections Committee with a hole in it big enough for child predators to walk through. On August 4, lawmakers rewrote the bill again. They didn't close that hole...

08/17/2026

Yes & amen!

08/17/2026

Ep. 103: Pronouns, Your Job & the WNBA: Gender Ideology Hits a Breaking Point

California now requires every employer with five or more employees to run staff through state-approved s*xual harassment training, and that training teaches that using the wrong pronoun or a person's pre-transition name is illegal harassment. Greg Burt took the state's supervisor course himself, and he walks Sophia through what he found, including the videos and screenshots CFC published this week.

Then the conversation turns to sports, where WNBA player Sophie Cunningham refused to back down after speaking up for female athletes, and two former NBA players declared for the 2027 WNBA draft to expose the league's own self-identification rules. Plus a preview of the Life, Family, Liberty Gala on September 16 with Seth Dillon of The Babylon Bee.

Links

Life, Family, Liberty Gala, September 16
Tickets, tables, and sponsorships: https://watchdog.californiafamily.org/fundraising/e/2026-gala

All CFC events: https://watchdog.californiafamily.org/rsvp/events

Story 1: California says you must affirm gender ideology to keep your job

CFC article with the training screenshots: https://www.californiafamily.org/2026/08/ca-says-you-must-affirm-gender-ideology-to-keep-your-job/

The state's free training portal (take it yourself): https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/shpt

Government Code 12950.1, the mandate: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=12950.1

Related, teachers and the PRISM training: https://www.californiafamily.org/2026/07/the-faith-test-california-makes-teachers-take-and-how-to-refuse-it/

Story 2: Sophie Cunningham and Women's Sports

ESPN, Cunningham says she wants to get back to basketball: https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49538591/amid-tension-cunningham-says-wants-get-back-basketball

Timeline of the controversy: https://sports.yahoo.com/wnba/article/sophie-cunningham-controversy-timeline-of-the-latest-discourse-around-the-wnba-what-caitlin-clark-has-said-221320700.html

Story 3: Two Former NBA Players Declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft

Enes Kanter Freedom's declaration: https://www.mediaite.com/media/sports/enes-kanter-freedom-officially-declares-for-wnba-draft-as-pressure-campaign-on-leagues-trans-policy-ratchets-up/

Royce White follows: https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/former-nba-player-royce-white-declaring-next-wnba-draft-enes-kanter-announcement

The WNBA's response, calling the debate bad faith: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/aug/12/wnba-denounces-bad-faith-transgender-women-debate-says-league-no/

ABC News explainer: https://abcnews.com/GMA/Culture/wnba-faces-controversy-transgender-eligibility-nba-players-declare/story?id=135516906

Watch and follow

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