From SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Bid-to-repeal-transgender-student-law-falling-5124980.php
Carla Marinucci
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Opponents of a new state law that expands transgender students’ rights appear to have fallen just short of qualifying a repeal initiative for the November ballot, the secretary of state’s office said Wednesday.
A random sampling indicated that the law’s opponents failed to gather the 504,760 valid signatures of registered voters that they needed to put their measure on the ballot, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said. Her office will now begin a full signature-by-signature count that could take 30 working days, or until Feb. 24.
Opponents of the law, AB1266, turned in 619,244 signatures in November. But the random count showed that just 482,582, or about 78 percent, were likely to be valid, Bowen’s office said.
The signature-gathering drive was mounted by a coalition of church and conservative groups called Privacy for All Students. It was led by Frank Schubert, a Republican political strategist who also headed the 2008 campaign for Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage in California. That measure passed, but federal courts ruled it unconstitutional.
The law opposed by Privacy for All Students was sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year.
It mandates that schools let transgender students use facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender with which they identify. It also requires that such students be given access to activities such as sports teams that are in line with their gender orientation.
The law took effect Jan. 1, according to Bowen’s office, but would be put on hold if the repeal initiative qualifies.
Although Bowen’s announcement Wednesday signals that may not happen, the initiative’s proponents said they aren’t giving up.
Continue reading at: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Bid-to-repeal-transgender-student-law-falling-5124980.php
