CALIFORNIA: Christian Groups Fail In Bid To Repeal Transgender Rights Law

A coalition of Christian and anti-gay hate groups has failed in their campaign to force a public vote on a repeal of the California law that protects transgender students from discrimination. But it was close.

The law's opponents needed at least 504,760 signatures to force a public vote on the statute approved by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year. They submitted 619,387, but county election officers determined that just 487,484 of them were valid, according to a final count posted on the secretary of state's website. The law at issue took effect Jan. 1. It guarantees students in grades K-12 the right to use the school restrooms and to participate in the sex-segregated activities that correspond with their expressed genders instead of their school records.

The haters say they aren't giving up.

Karen England of the Privacy for All Students coalition said the proposed referendum's backers are not conceding defeat yet. They plan to review the disqualified signatures and, depending what they find, go to court to try to get enough added to the final tally so the measure would have to be put to voters. "We are preparing for the next stage of the battle," England said in a statement. "After months of waiting, we now get to see why so many signatures were thrown out. Certainly some signers were not registered to vote or had moved without changing their address. But it is also certain that many of those signatures were rejected based on reasons that will not survive a legal challenge."

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: The vile Karen England has organized public school walkouts over the anti-bullying Day Of Silence.  In 2009 England filed a failed federal lawsuit to overturn California's bill protecting LGBT students from bullying. In 2010 she tried to get then-California Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado to file an appeal of the overturn of Prop 8 while then-Gov. Schwarzenegger was out of the country. She then ran an unsuccessful campaign for Maldonado's job. In 2011 she launched a campaign to block transgender adults from changing their birth certificates. England was also one of the louder bigots against the repeal of DADT.