Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, is reaffirming its commitment to equality, safety, and inclusion with a bold 2025 legislative agenda. This year’s priorities will expand protections for LGBTQ+ Californians in critical areas, including family building, safe and supportive schools, worker protections, identity documents, healthcare, and privacy, with a particular focus on the safety of the transgender community within California and beyond its borders.

“With Donald Trump and his extremist administration waging unprecedented attacks on LGBTQ+ people—especially transgender people—the gloves are off in California when it comes to protecting the safety and civil rights of our community. This year, Equality California is advancing a bold legislative agenda to strengthen protections for LGBTQ+ Californians across critical areas, including family building, safe and supportive schools, worker protections, identity documents, healthcare, housing, and privacy,” said Executive Director Tony Hoang. “These bills are essential to ensuring California remains a national leader in LGBTQ+ equality while standing strong against the rising tide of hate and discrimination fueled by the Trump administration’s cruel policies attacking transgender and nonbinary Americans. Equality California will work tirelessly alongside the LGBTQ Legislative Caucus, legislative allies, advocates, and community members to pass these protections and continue the fight for full, lived LGBTQ+ equality.”

Equality California is sponsoring the following bills:

ID Documents

AB 1084 (Zbur): The Transgender Records Act: Streamlines and expedites the process for transgender and nonbinary Californians to obtain court orders for name and gender marker changes by requiring courts to process uncontested petitions within two weeks. It also mandates that amended birth and marriage certificates be issued within two weeks.

Why is it important? As the Trump administration blocks transgender and nonbinary Americans from obtaining accurate U.S. passports and other federal IDs, AB 1084 ensures swift access to accurate state IDs in California without unnecessary barriers or delays. Correct IDs are crucial for daily life, including healthcare, employment, housing, and travel, while significantly reducing the risk of discrimination and harassment.

SB 59 (Wiener): The Transgender Privacy Act: Protects the privacy and safety of transgender and nonbinary Californians by making all court records related to name and gender marker changes confidential, reducing their risk of being outed and exposed to danger. It also prohibits these records from being posted publicly.

Why is it important?  With rising anti-transgender hate and violence and an openly hostile Trump administration, protecting transgender people’s privacy and safety is essential in California.

Shield Law Protections

AB 82 (Ward): Protects transgender and nonbinary Californians accessing essential healthcare and those seeking abortion and reproductive healthcare by limiting the sharing of sensitive patient data related to these services. The bill also expands safe-haven protections for patients, their families and medical professionals who offer this care to protect them from harassment, violence and hostile out-of-state actors.

Why is it important? With increasing attacks on transgender healthcare and reproductive rights from the Trump administration, patients and medical professionals are fearful for their safety. AB 82 is critical in safeguarding patient privacy, protecting medical providers from threats, and ensuring that all Californians can receive the healthcare they need without fear or discrimination.

AB 715 (Zbur): The California Attorney Protection Act: Safeguards attorneys from disciplinary action when providing legal services to patients, medical providers, and others seeking or offering healthcare services that are lawful in California but may be illegal in other states.

Why is it important? AB 715 is a critical response to the escalating legal threats against abortion and transgender healthcare. As more states move to criminalize essential healthcare services, attorneys providing legal support to patients, providers, and advocates face potential disciplinary action and legal repercussions simply for defending rights protected under California law. AB 715 will ensure that California remains a safe haven for these essential healthcare services and the legal professionals who advocate for them.

SB 497 (Wiener): Protects sensitive health data for transgender and nonbinary Californians by requiring warrants for law enforcement to access the state’s prescription drug database and establishes that knowingly sharing information from the database to unauthorized parties without a warrant is punishable as a misdemeanor. The bill also strengthens California’s shield laws by prohibiting health care providers from complying with subpoenas requiring the disclosure of sensitive medical information about transgender and nonbinary patients.

Why is it important? As anti-LGBTQ+ laws spread across the country, state governments are seeking ways to punish transgender and nonbinary people for accessing essential healthcare—even if that care was received legally in California. This bill ensures that medical records remain confidential and California healthcare providers cannot be used as tools for out-of-state investigations or legal action.

HIV Prevention

AB 554 (González): The PrEPARE Act: Strengthens existing protections requiring health plans and insurers to cover all HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications—as long as they are FDA-approved and clinically effective—without patient cost sharing or other restrictions like prior authorization. The bill also ensures that local, community-based clinics can receive timely reimbursement for these drugs.

Why is it important? As patient protections for PrEP and other critical healthcare services are at enormous risk under the Trump administration and the current U.S. Supreme Court, AB 554 will ensure that PrEP remains available for all who need it, particularly Black and Latino young gay and bisexual men who remain disproportionately impacted by HIV. AB 554 strengthens California’s commitment to reducing HIV transmission and ensuring that cost and access barriers do not stand in the way of life-saving preventive care.

Safe Schools

AB 908 (Solache): Makes “implementation of supportive policies and initiatives to address LGBTQ+ pupil education and well-being” a state priority that local school districts must address as part of their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs).

Why is it important? With existing laws aimed at supporting LGBTQ+ students in our schools not yet being fully implemented across the state and Trump seeking to discriminate against LGBTQ+ young people proactively, it is critical for California to ensure that local school districts uphold their obligations under state law to create a safe and inclusive learning environment for LGBTQ+ students.

LGBTQ+ Families

SB 450 (Menjivar): Clarifies and reaffirms California’s longstanding jurisdiction for adoption proceedings, including confirmatory adoptions, for LGBTQ+ parents and others who either never lived in California or who no longer live here, so long as the child was born in the state.

Why is it important? With LGBTQ+ rights under increasing attack nationwide, many parents face legal uncertainty and challenges in states hostile to same-sex parentage. This bill helps to ensure that LGBTQ+ parents in other states can secure a court-ordered adoption decree using the state’s streamlined confirmatory adoption process if their child was born in California. As states attempt to roll back LGBTQ+ family rights, SB 450 reinforces California’s role as a legal safeguard, providing stability and security for families who may face discrimination elsewhere.

Workplace Protections

SB 590 (Durazo): Expands protections for LGBTQ+ and other workers who need to take time off work to care for a loved one with a serious illness by updating the definition of “family member” for purposes of California’s Paid Family Leave Program (PFL). SB 590 will ensure that qualifying workers are able to receive PFL wage replacement benefits to care for a member of their chosen or extended family.

Why is it important? Many LGBTQ+ adults, especially older people, do not have close ties with biological relatives due to family rejection or other circumstances. Instead, they rely on their chosen or extended family for support. This bill recognizes the diverse caregiving needs within the LGBTQ+ community and ensures that no one is forced to choose between their livelihood and caring for a loved one in times of serious illness. This issue was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic and disproportionately affected LGBTQ+ people.

Housing & Homelessness

AB 678 (Lee): Requires the California Interagency Council on Homelessness—in partnership with LGBTQ+ community organizations and housing providers—to take proactive steps to ensure that state funded homelessness programs provide safe, inclusive and culturally competent services for unhoused LGBTQ+ Californians.

Why is it important? The bill ensures that California’s homelessness programs are safe, inclusive, and culturally competent for LGBTQ+ people, who experience disproportionately high rates of homelessness. Many unhoused LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender people and LGBTQ+ youth, face discrimination, harassment, and unsafe conditions in shelters and housing programs that fail to accommodate their needs. With the Trump administration recently announcing that it will stop enforcing the Equal Access Rule, which requires federally funded housing programs to ensure equal access to programs for people based on their gender identity, it is critical for California to ensure that state-funded homelessness programs provide safe, inclusive, and fair housing for LGBTQ+ people.

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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org