Library controversies and gender-identity policies in America’s K-12 schools arise from the minority-stress theory. According to this theory, gays and the transgendered suffer from an accumulation of microaggressions, rejections, bullying, discrimination, and stigmatizing. These experiences stress their mental and physical health. As a result, both groups engage in risky behavior, harm themselves, or even commit suicide. The theory implies a remedy: to relieve this stress, society and its individual members must not only cease to be disapproving; they must also become positively affirming.

California has been busy attempting to carry out these goals by fighting “transphobia” and “homophobia” in schools, as we show in a report from the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life and the Idaho Freedom Foundation. The result of these efforts gives us another chance to test minority-stress theory.

California’s legislature has passed ten laws to support gays since 2011, and it has passed three laws applying minority-stress theory to the transgendered. Among these are Seth’s Law (2011), which directs public schools to adopt anti-bullying policies to protect gays and the transgendered; the FAIR Education Act (2011), which requires the incorporation of LGBTQ+ heroes into public K-12 curriculum; the School Success and Opportunity Act (2013), which allows public school students to use bathrooms based on their chosen gender identity; the Healthy Youth Act (2015), which mandates “LGBTQ+ inclusive” Comprehensive Sex Education for grades 7–12; the Suicide Prevention Act (2016), which obliges public schools to adopt suicide-prevention policies for grades K–12, and specifically for LGBTQ+ students; the Safe and Supportive Schools Act (2019), which requires the California Department of Education to provide LGBTQ+ resources for school districts; the Health Education Framework (2019), which includes training for teachers to affirm and perhaps cultivate LGBTQ+ identities in students; the Menstrual Equity for All Act (2021), which puts tampon machines in boy’s bathrooms; and the Gender Affirming Health Care Act (2022), which compels public schools to assist in administering gender transitioning, even over parental objections.