The Huntington Beach City Councilmembers have pushed back against numerous progressive policies put into place at the state level, with the most recent action challenging AB 1955.
Huntington Beach has seen somewhat of a conservative backlash against California’s progressive drift. This included the removing of the rainbow flag from City Hall last year, as well as a recent challenge to California’s AB 1955.
AB1955 was signed into effect last month by Governor Gavin Newsom, and it prevents school personnel from informing the parents of a student’s gender transition. The new law received a lot of criticism even from Elon Musk who expressed his outrage on X over Newsom’s signing of the law.
Recently Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark has “introduced an ordinance” to challenge the new law in the city of Huntington Beach. Her desire is to make Huntington Beach a “right to know” city, or a “sanctuary city” for parental rights.
Mayor Van Der Mark stated on X, “It is our constitutional right to to raise our own children with the values, morals, and beliefs we choose to instill in them, not the state’s.”
City Council Member Dan Kalmick called this action a “ridiculous and weird agenda item…” He also said that this “creates another circus in Huntington Beach.” Kalmick is one of the three left-leaning council members, who is up for re-election this year.
In fact, this November election will still see a conservative majority retain control, and determine the direction of the council for the next few years. If the three left-leaning members aren’t re-elected, it will likely solidify the conservative direction for years afterwards.
This new ordinance will probably play an important role in the upcoming election later this year. Mayor Van Der Mark is determined to “send a message to Sacramento” that Huntington Beach is not going to let this go without a fight.
The conservative members of the city council have been successful at their pushback against the progressive leaning of the rest of California, and they are not alone in their outspoken criticism of the governor on a number of issues.
Other California public officials like Placer County Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA), and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, have also been outspoken with regards to this law, as well as the Governor’s handling of a number of issues including homelessness and crime in California.
