Professor Joslin Helps PolitiFact Clear Up Claims About Assembly Bill

Professor Courtney Joslin spoke to PolitiFact for a June 22 fact-check of claims about California Assembly Bill 957, which would add affirmation of a child’s gender identity to a list of considerations a judge must weigh in custody disputes. 

Some conservative news outlets and online commenters have portrayed the bill as providing a basis for finding that parents who refuse to affirm a child’s gender identity have engaged in child abuse.  

PolitiFact deemed the claims “false.” 

“There are many actions and behaviors that can impact a children’s best interest and their health, safety, and welfare that are not child abuse,” Joslin told PolitiFact. “The distinction is clear in existing California law, and nothing in the bill alters this distinction.”  

Professor Joslin is a scholar in the field of family and relationship recognition, with a particular focus on same-sex and non-marital couples.