Trans youth issues this year have sparked protests at school boards across the state as conservative groups call for mandatory parental notification policies. Members of the LGBTQ caucus had considered introducing a bill to stop those policies, but dropped the idea after the Newsom administration and some caucus members expressed concerns about getting the message right.
Republicans praised Newsom on Friday for his veto. Rep. Bill Essayli, who has pushed the issue in the legislature, said on Twitter that “this is fantastic news and the right call.”
Sen. Scott Wiener, a gay Democrat from San Francisco and an advocate for priority LGBTQ bills, called Newsom’s veto a “tragedy for trans kids who ‘live in fear'” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Newsom also vetoed a bill that would have required human drivers to be on board in self-driving trucks. The move was a priority for organized labor groups like the Teamsters, who fear artificial intelligence and automation will cause widespread economic upheaval and an uproar over self-driving taxis in San Francisco, where City officials battled a proliferation of malfunctioning vehicles that have snarled traffic and stymied first responders.
Newsom’s rejection came as no surprise after his top business executive opposed the bill, arguing that it would stifle innovation. The governor wrote in his veto message that regulatory agencies were well equipped to oversee the emerging technology.
That response is unlikely to mollify lawmakers, who believe regulators are too friendly to industry or organized labor. California Federation of Labor leader Lorena Gonzalez slammed Newsom’s “shocking” veto in a statement vowing to “fight to make sure robots don’t replace human drivers.”
And the governor rolled back a bill that would have barred California’s prison system from sharing information about imprisoned immigrants with federal officials, strengthening California’s “sanctuary laws.” In a veto message, Newsom said he believed “the current law strikes the right balance to limit interaction to support community trust and cooperation between law enforcement and local communities.”
This isn’t the first time Newsom has broken with immigrant advocates. In 2019, he vetoed a bill that would have banned private security personnel from arresting immigrants in California prisons.
Several hundred more bills are awaiting Newsom’s signature or veto before the Oct. 14 deadline, including many that will further test his balance between business and labor interests.
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