Celebrating State Policy that Center the Safety of Girls and Gender-Expansive Youth
Over the last month, Alliance for Girls (AFG) has celebrated some exciting legislation wins. Below are some updates from our data-driven state policy advocacy efforts. In each of these pieces of legislation, our girl-centered research was uplifted to highlight the need for both of these bills. Additionally, our local advocacy through Phase I of the Not One More Girl Initiative with BART helped inspire two important pieces of legislation on public safety which were passed in the last 2 years: SB 1161 and SB 434.
Here are the bills AFG supported and how they positively impact the lives of girls and gender-expansive youth in California.
AB 452 (Justice for Survivors Act), introduced by State Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Dawn Addis, removes the statute of limitations for civil cases involving the sexual abuse of a minor, therefore allowing survivors to seek justice years later. AFG’s research and the experiences of our member organizations working directly with survivors of sexual abuse, show that many girl and gender-expansive youth survivors face difficulty reporting abuse promptly due to fear, shame, or manipulation by the abuser and the normalization of sexual violence in our communities and country. Young people are less likely to be aware of their rights and the long-term consequences of abuse, which can also deter them from reporting. Governor Newsom signed AB 452 on Tuesday, October 10th.
SB 434 (Public Transit for All), introduced by State Senator Dave Min, requires California’s top ten public transit systems to collect qualitative and quantitative data about rider experiences with harassment. This bill is a companion to SB 1161, also authored by Senator Dave Min, which was signed into law last year and called for the Mineta Transit Institute to create a survey tool focused on rider safety on public transportation and to help develop data-driven initiatives to help prevent street harassment on public transportation systems. Governor Newsom signed SB 434 into law on Saturday, October 7th. Read AFG’s op-ed supporting SB 434, published a few days before it was signed.
Unfortunately, our supported menstrual equity legislation, SB 260 (The Menstrual Equity Act of 2023), introduced by State Senator Caroline Menjivar, did not make it to the Governor’s desk this year. SB 260 would have made menstrual products accessible to all, regardless of income. Specifically, this bill would require the Department of Social Services (CDSS) to cover menstrual products by adding $20 dollars in CalWORKs per month in aid for each menstruating CalWORKs recipient to purchase menstrual products. Although this bill didn’t make it to the finish line, it’s important that we continue to uplift the need for menstrual equity so we can build momentum for 2024.
We thank the bill authors and their staff for centering girls and gender-expansive youth in state policy. We also want to thank all our SB 260 and SB 434 coalition leads, members, youth leaders, and partners for their incredible coordination and work.
Want to read about what inspired SB 1161 (2022) and SB 434 (2023)? Safety in Numbers: How the Not One More Girl Initiative Addresses Sexual Harassment and Gender-Based Violence is our case study that captures our journey, impact, and learning of Phase 1 of the Not One More Girl initiative.
Are you interested in data and stories on what’s impacting girls and gender-expansive youth in South and Southeast LA? Hear Their Voices: The Experiences of Girls* & Gender-Expansive Youth in South and Southeast Los Angeles is a brief summarizing the findings of our research to date in LA County. Take the next step with us today by registering for our virtual Community Shareback meeting on Wednesday, November 1st from 10-11:30am PST, where we’ll unpack these research findings and start outlining data-driven and girl and gender-expansive youth-centered solutions together.
