Under the terms of the legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2021, California-based department stores with 500 or more employees that sell “childcare items or toys,” must have a gender-neutral section “regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys.”

It defines “childcare items” as any product designed to facilitate sleep, feeding children, relaxation or “to help children with sucking or teething” and defines children as those 12 and under.

Any department store that fails to create a gender neutral section could face a $250 fine for a first violation, and a $500 fine for any subsequent violations.

[Why does that require a ‘gender neutral’ section? Parents can find these products easily enough on shelves now. Most products other than clothing are not ‘segregated’ by sex in the first place, although toys often are — but all that means is walking to the next aisle. This is an absurd regulation, and is the apotheosis of progressive nanny-state impulses getting married to the latest ideological fad. — Ed]