AB 1998
CFC SupportsDiscrimination: sex and gender: intimate spaces
CFC Says
CFC supports AB 1998.
This bill would require that private spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities in California businesses be separated based on a person's biological sex at birth, rather than their gender identity. It would apply to all business-related settings across the state.
Currently at Introduced.
Legislative Progress
CFC's Position Letter
March 6, 2026
Assembly Member Castillo
1021 O Street, Suite 4240
P.O. Box 942849
Re: Support for AB 1998
Dear Assembly Member Castillo:
On behalf of tens of thousands of constituents, allied organizations, and more than 2,000
churches across California, California Family Council is proud to endorse AB 1998, a bill
that would make a slight change to the Unruh Civil Rights Act, so that “intimate spaces”
such as bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and changing rooms are segregated on the
basis of biological sex and not gender identity.
The right to bodily privacy in intimate spaces is not a matter of cultural preference; it is a
constitutionally recognized interest rooted in the right to privacy enshrined in Article I,
Section 1 of the California Constitution. Women and girls possess a legitimate and legally
cognizable privacy interest in spaces where they undress, shower, or attend to personal
bodily functions without exposure to individuals of the opposite biological sex.
There are real stories of women and girls feeling vulnerable and unsafe in spaces meant
to protect privacy. In one incident at a YMCA in San Diego County, a 17-year-old girl
encountered a male in the women’s locker room shower and was left frightened. At the
Santee City Council meeting, she recounted how the YMCA staff disregarded her
concerns, stating that the man was legally allowed to be in the bathroom. Other widely
publicized news articles have highlighted similar instances of men who identify as
transgender, upsetting females in their intimate spaces.
- Exclusive: WiSpa Suspect Not Guilty on All Nine Counts of Indecent Exposure
- Trans gymgoer caught ‘masturbating’ in women’s bathroom at California Planet Fitness
- Meet Tish Hyman, the California Lesbian Fighting To Keep Men Out Of Women’s Locker Rooms
These instances should outrage us. Male and female physiology are objectively distinct,
and those distinctions are precisely why sex-separated intimate spaces were created in the
first place. By clarifying the law and restoring protections based on biological sex inareas where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy, AB 1998 brings clarity and peace of mind to countless Californians who simply want to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and similar facilities without fear of their privacy being violated.
For these reasons, California Family Council gladly supports AB 1998.
Sincerely,
Greg Burt
Vice President
California Family Council
Official Description
Existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, provides that all persons within the jurisdiction of this state are entitled to full and equal accommodations in all business establishments regardless of their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status. Existing law, for purposes of this provision, defines “sex” to include, but does not limit it to, a person’s gender. Existing law further defines “gender” to mean sex, and includes a person’s gender identity and gender expression, as the latter is defined. Existing law prohibits the act from being construed to require any construction, alteration, repair, structural or otherwise, or modification of any sort whatsoever, beyond that construction, alteration, repair, or modification that is otherwise required by other provisions of law, to any new or existing establishment, facility, building, improvement, or any other structure, or to augment, restrict, or alter in any way the authority of the State Architect to require construction, alteration, repair, or modifications that the State Architect otherwise possesses pursuant to other laws. This bill would include in the provision regarding full and equal business accommodations the characteristics of gender identity and gender expression, as defined, and make corresponding changes in existing law. The bill would delete the above definitions of “sex” and “gender” and, instead, define “sex” to mean an individual’s immutable biological sex, including either female or male, as further defined. The bill would require that accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments related to intimate spaces be separated on the basis on sex, irrespective of gender identity or gender expression. The bill would define “intimate spaces” to include bathrooms, showers, changing rooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, and any other area in which an individual would have a reasonable expectation of privacy from the opposite sex. The bill would authorize single-occupancy intimate bathrooms to be gender neutral. The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations.