SACRAMENTO, CA --The California Third District Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that a 2017 state law requiring employees at long-term care facilities to use patients’ “preferred” pronouns violates First Amendment free speech rights.
Taking Offense, an unincorporated association, filed the lawsuit challenging part of California’s Health and Safety Code that requires health facility employees to deny a person’s biological sex and acknowledge a “chosen” gender or pronoun of a patient. Employees who refused to do so would have faced criminal charges for “misgendering” a resident. Violations could be prosecuted as misdemeanors and violators could face 180 days in jail and a $2,500 fine.