A Texas-based conservative law firm is pushing New Jersey to repeal state guidance that limits when schools must notify parents about a student’s gender identity. The Liberty Justice Center sent a letter to New Jersey Attorney General Jen Davenport on Aug. 4, arguing that Policy 5756, issued by the state Department of Education in 2018, could expose the state to federal civil rights litigation, according to the New Jersey Monitor.
The voluntary policy bars schools from disclosing a student’s gender identity without consent unless a specific and compelling need, such as a safety concern, requires it. Some districts in New Jersey follow the guidelines and others do not. Similar letters went to attorneys general in New York, Illinois and Washington state.
Melissa Firstenberg, chairwoman of membership and networking for the Transgender Rights Coalition of New Jersey said that the policy “is more than a set of administrative guidelines — it is a vital lifeline for our most vulnerable children,” and that it helps districts comply with the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.
She said guidelines protecting student privacy allow a child to disclose their identity only once they know they’ll be safe, and rejected the Liberty Justice Center’s framing of the debate as one about parental control. “We do not fight to control children as if they were property,” Firstenberg said.
Lauren Albrecht, senior director of advocacy and organizing for Garden State Equality, said that New Jersey’s guidance has “no reported negative effects on the health and safety of LGBTQ students” in the nearly a decade since districts began voluntarily adopting it. “Groups like the Liberty Justice Center … are attempting to capitalize on the Trump administration’s baseless and harmful incessant crusade against transgender people,” Albrecht said.
“The Liberty Justice Center continues to draw the false equivalence between New Jersey’s policy and California’s law, which is a disingenuous and intentional tactic to further fan the flames,” said Albrecht. New Jersey’s policy is voluntary while California’s is mandatory.
The group Defending Education, which opposes policies such as Policy 5756, estimates 130 out of New Jersey’s nearly 600 districts have adopted the state guidance.
