Christians who reject transgender ideology could virtually be barred from serving as police officers in the nation’s largest state, thanks to a series of laws and guidelines rolled out under California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) — policies that experts say may lead officers to make more dangerous decisions and would chill free speech. State officials have said police departments should scour applicants’ social media profiles for “disqualifying bias,” such as calling a man who identifies as female a male.

Late last month, Newsom signed a bill (AB 2229) requiring all police applicants to undergo a psychological evaluation to test “bias” based on “gender” or “sexual orientation.” A companion bill currently under consideration (AB 2547) would ask police departments to search “applicant social media profiles” for “content indicative of potential biases, such as affiliation with hate groups” — yet both measures merely build on existing laws and guidelines.

Last fall, Newsom mandated the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to have all police applicants evaluated for “implicit bias” based on gender and sexual orientation and signed another measure to revoke a police officer’s badge if he demonstrates such bias. The latter bill would bar the officer from serving anywhere in the state.

The term “bias” often remains ill-defined or undefined in these laws, but the auditor of the State of California produced an example in a report this April, after evaluating five major police departments. The report deemed an officer guilty of “disqualifying” act of “bias” for posting a meme on his private social media page that referred to the assistant secretary of HHS, whose birth name was Richard Levine, as a man. The auditor’s report recommended human resources officials perform a “[c]heck of applicants’ social media websites for disqualifying content” and “[s]creen out applicants with implicit or explicit biases.” Presumably, posting a verse from the Book of Genesis that God created mankind “male and female” may be classified as biased against people who identify as nonbinary.

Yet an applicant need not say anything to be “screened out” of the job pool.

Newsom’s guidelines require implicit bias tests to examine an applicant’s adherence to LGBTQ ideology. One such test measures negative brain activity, involuntary physical responses, and how long it takes for the applicant to match such positive words as “glorious” with “pictures of same-sex couples standing next to each other or holding hands….”

 

The above comes from an Oct. 28 story in the Washington Stand.