An effort to get the California Child Protection Act on the ballot is spreading rapidly in the Korean-American community.
The campaign, led by pastors from over 50 Korean churches in Los Angeles and Orange counties, reports that approximately 5,000 individuals have signed the petition, including 1,250 from Grace Korean Church, 850 from Sa-rang Community Church, and 600 from the Glory Church Jesus Christ.
“Including the petitions gathered by TVNEXT, a Korean-American Christian organization, we have more than 10,000 petitions signed,” said Pastor Soonyoung Kang of the Southern California Petition Campaign Headquarters. “The petition drive is scheduled to run until April 13, so we’re encouraging Korean Americans to actively participate.”
Currently, the Korean-American community is undertaking a significant signature collection effort to qualify the Protect Kids of California Act for inclusion on the November 5 ballot.
In Southern California, the petition drive collaborates with church leaders and volunteers from multiple congregations to establish booths at Hannam Chain, Zion Market, The Source in Buena Park, and Hannam Chain in Torrance to collect signatures from Korean Americans. The fact that more than 10,000 people have signed the petition in just over a month shows that the Korean-American community is supportive of the initiative.
“At the Hannam Chain booth, some LGBT individuals also signed the petition too,” said Sungkyu Park, pastor of the Junimseun Church in Torrance, adding “This means they believe that the current law, which allows medical institutions and the government to perform gender transition procedures on minors without parental consent, is flawed.”
Under the current law, public schools must provide at least one gender-neutral restroom, permit minors aged 12 and older to obtain gender identity counseling and undergo gender transitioning without parental consent, and allow parents who do not approve of their LGBTQ identity to be profiled.
Should the initiative be approved in the referendum, it would mandate that public schools and universities designate restrooms, showers, and locker rooms separately for men and women based on gender; it would also ban men who transition to women from participating in women’s sports; require schools to notify parents before recommending that their children undergo gender reassignment or change their gender or name; prohibit schools or medical institutions from recommending that children undergo gender reassignment, referring them to psychiatric counseling, or performing gender reassignment procedures without parental consent; and prohibit local taxpayer dollars from being used for transgender healthcare for minors.
“We are currently in talks with Korean-American Catholic, Latino, Chinese, and Vietnamese religious organizations,” said Pastor Soonyoung Kang, “as well as Korean-American churches in Northern California and San Diego.”
The petition requires a total of 550,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, but the aim is to collect 700,000 signatures, as the state government weeds out invalid signatures in the process of counting valid signatures. The campaign is hoping to secure 100,000 signatures from the Korean-American community.
BY YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
