Breaking News! Firefighters for Freedom won their appeal! Firefighters4Freedom, whose mission is to support the constitutional rights of firefighters in the City of Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic sued the city of Los Angeles over the City’s 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate for City employees. F4F won their court of APPEAL June 21st, 2023 from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Judge Michael P. Linfield dismissed in part and reversed with directions in part. The judge ruled that the lower court ruled in error. With an 82 page decision, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the lower court to dismiss the case. This is a critical victory for California and all who fight for freedom. The tide is turning.

PERK has been supportive of Fire Fighters For Freedom and their critical lawsuit against the city. They have also been supportive of our lawsuit against LA County. We have worked side by side to support each other and share the same legal team for our respective cases. Attorney John Howard and Attorney Scott Street have relentlessly fought the legal battles with the city and the county.

Now, it's our turn. Our lawsuit, Tsai v. Los Angeles County, was filed almost 2 years ago this fall. In February, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gail Killefer dismissed the case that PERK filed for employees of Los Angeles County who were ordered to get the COVID-19 shots under threat of termination. The decision has been appealed. The appeal involves the same issues as the Firefighters for Freedom appeal. While the firefighters’ opinion was not published (and thus cannot be relied upon in our case) we believe the Court of Appeals’ analysis was sound and that we will get a similar result. Thus, the Firefighters For Freedom win today helps our case. We are so proud of everyone's hard work.

These lawsuits are making a difference, both today and for future generations of Californians.

PERK will continue our fight for all Californians to protect and preserve freedom. We are grateful for the support from our PERK members, county employees, and partners. Let's keep up the fight! These victories will only continue as we all hold the line for freedom.

Good

Thanks to all your efforts with the PERK action calls to ask for a double referral of AB 659! You made a difference. AB 659 has been double referred to Senate Health and Senate Education.

Bad

AB 665, AB 223, SB 407 passed their committee hearings and are heading to the next step of committee hearing and floor vote.

ugly

AB 957 passed the Senate Judiciary committee on June 13th, despite much opposition from constituents and skepticism from the committee members. AB 957 "requires the court, for purposes of deciding custody, to determine the best interests of the child based on certain factors, including, among other things, the nature and amount of contact with both parents and the health, safety, and welfare of the child...This bill, for purposes of this provision, would include a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child."

ASM. Wilson AB 957 bill author stated during the hearing: "All parents -- who are not abusive -- have a right to spend time with their children....it is absolutely important that TGI kids are seen in the family court system and seen in a way that affirms them...This allows their children to be seen...that says it is a state policy...that affirmation of a child's gender identity is a good thing...and it doesn't leave for judicial discretion to say otherwise -- because that is what is currently allowed by law....we want to make sure that...every judge in the state of California recognizes that, for a TGI child, affirmation is in their absolute best interest -- period."

watch Ab 957 hearing here

What you can do

Take action on all the PERK opposed bills .

AB 659- Cancer Prevention Act is misleading parents to think that HPV vaccine will be required for attendance in schools and colleges.

Status: Sen Health Committee Hearing Date: 06/28/23

AB 659 co-author ASM Friedman essentially admitting the bill’s intent is to mislead people into thinking you are required to receive HPV vaccine for school.

Action Steps:

Contact Senate Health Committee to demand they amend the bill by removing the “expected” language or remove the school notice section altogether.

To oppose use AB 659 Health Committee One click Action link
To oppose use AB 659 Latino Caucus One Click Action Link
Submit your letter of opposition to legislative portal today.
Call Senate Latino Caucus and Senate Health Committee
Sample Script: Please oppose or abstain on Ab 659, unless amended to take out the word "expected". This bill declares a state policy that it is "expected" for attendance leaves it open to misinterpretation to think the HPV vaccination is required. And misleads parents and administrators to think it is required. This is especially confusing for non-English speaking families or that English is a second language to them

Take action on AB 659

Contact the Latino Caucus to oppose AB 659

AB-665 - Minors: consent to mental health services

Assembly Bill 665 would remove the requirement that children must be a danger to themselves or others, or be alleged incest or abuse victims, before seeking care without their parents' consent.

Status: Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing: Tuesday June 20th at 1:30 pm room 2100.

Action Steps:

Contact the Senate Judiciary Committee.

To oppose use the AB 655 One Click Action Link
Submit your letter of opposition to legislative portal today.
Call the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sample script: AB 665 intentionally removes the “danger guardrails” of Family Code 6924, which require an allegation of danger to a minor before the minor may consent without parental consent to residential shelter. What facts or public policy support the removal of those specific danger guardrails from Family Code 6924, enacted in 1979? I urge you to either vote no or have the author gut and amend AB 665. Leave Family Code 6924 alone. Instead, amend Welfare & Institutions 14029.8 to remove the word “not.” This will immediately enable Medi-Cal benefits for disadvantaged kids to receive counseling for any reason under Health & Safety Code 124260. You can preserve your goal without removing safety guardrails.

Take action on AB 665

AB 957 - Family law: gender identity.

AB 957 author ASM. Wilson defends this bill, using an example of a 7-year-old who announces their gender doesn't match their sex. Essentially saying a parent could lose custody for not "affirming" whatever their child believes about their gender.

AB 957 will amend and add to Section 3011 of the Family Code. It will obligate a judge to include "the health, safety, and welfare of the child includes a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity." as part of the of criteria in making a determination of the best interests of the child in a proceeding described in Section 3021 when awarding custody.

Status:

This bill passed Assembly floor on a 51-13-16 mostly partisan vote. It passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday June 13th on a 8-2 straight partisan vote.
It is NOT keyed fiscal so it is eligible to be referred to the Senate floor for a vote perhaps as soon as Tuesday June 22nd.

Action Steps:

Contact the Senate Members.

To oppose use the AB 957 One Click Action Link
Submit your letter of opposition to legislative portal today.
Call the Senate Members
Sample Script: Please oppose or abstain on AB 957. What if the child is not prepared to publicly announce his or her transition? What if the child is not able to do so in a court or during an official judicial proceeding? How is this in the best interests of the child, especially when this bill applies to children of all ages, not just, e.g. 12 and up?
Talking points:
- California would become the first state in the nation to criminalize and penalize parents who do not affirm their children.
- Changes the Family Law creating a path for CPS (Child Protective Services), law enforcement, and the courts to award custody to the parent who affirms gender identity.
- If a parent does not affirm their child’s gender it may be considered abusive, cutting off this parent from all ties with the child and no control to change this.
- There is NO age limit for which this bill applies. If a 5-year-old believes he or she is in the wrong body, this law will make it child abuse not to affirm the child’s gender identity.
- The bill redefines and amends the Family Code Family Code, section 3011, exploiting custody battles to redefine “health, welfare, and safety.”
- This bill essentially makes it illegal to NOT give minors sex changes, gender affirming treatment, and surgeries in California making it so that parents would lose custody if they don't go along.

take action on AB 957

SB-407 Foster care: resource families.

SB 407 will not allow foster children to be placed in homes if you will not or cannot affirm their self-selected gender identity. This bill would make foster families sign forms stating they will affirm the foster child's gender, even if it is against their religious beliefs

Status: Asm. Human Services Committee Hearing Date: 06/20/23

Action Steps:

Contact Assembly Human Service Committee

Submit your letter of opposition to legislative portal today.
To oppose use the AB 407 One Click Action Link
Call Assembly Human Services Committee

Sample Script:
SB407 is a bill that would make affirmation of a self-selected gender a determining factor regarding foster care placement. With limited availability of candidates to provide foster care and with the overwhelming rate of foster children being people of color and at risk youth, limiting the pool of candidates who can foster a child will have negative consequences for these children. Please oppose SB407.

take action on SB 407

SB-770 Health care: unified health care financing.

The ultimate goal is to force all Californians out of their existing health coverage – including Medicare, employer-based coverage and ACA plans – and into a new untested government-run system, with no ability to opt out or choose private coverage instead.. They also point out that any waiver obtained through this bill would not be permanent and could be disallowed by Congress at any time, eliminating 40% of the funding for the new health care system. This bill also requires raising taxes by roughly $300 billion a year.

This bill provides little details on how the transition to this system would be achieved, how providers would be reimbursed, and could ultimately cause providers to leave the state

This will implement government run medicine, which will dictate which medicines and medical treatments you will be allowed to have. You will no longer have a choice in treatments. It will be a one size all medical practice for the state.

This bill passed the Senate floor on a 30-9-1 mostly partisan vote.

Status: Hearing Date 06/27/23 Assembly Health Committee

Action Steps:

Submit your letter of opposition to legislative portal today.
Take action to oppose with PERK’s SB 770 One Click Action Link.
Call Assembly Health Committee
Fridays call your legislators district office to voice your opposition and ask questions.
Sample script: Please oppose SB 770. This is not financially feasible for the state nor the residents. This will led to universal health that eliminates choice in medical care, treatments and providers.