In a whirlwind campaign, opponents of California’s co-ed bathroom law have collected 620,000 signatures in less than 90 days to bring the law to a referendum vote in November 2014. The effort needed 505,000 valid signatures to qualify and, as of yet, the signatures have not been verified.
In order to verify the signatures, each of California’s 58 counties will check the signatures, conduct a sample survey to determine if the amount of signatures is feasibly correct, and then the state may do a full review, according to the Associated Press.
The law, which would have allowed male students access to girls’ restrooms and locker rooms, has been highly controversial, even in blue California. As I previously reported, Frank Schubert, former head of successful campaigns to defend traditional marriage in California, Maine, and North Carolina, spearheaded the petition drive.
Last Friday, before all of the petitions were submitted, Schubert told me that he thought they would get just enough. While they have more than enough signatures to put the law on the ballot, he told me that he expects many to be invalidated (as usually occurs in petition drives) and that, in the end, “it will be close.” However, if the law is put on the ballot, Schubert previously told me that he is very confident it will be overturned.
John O’Connor of Equality California, a co-sponsor of the law, opposes what he sees as a discriminatory referendum effort. “Protecting this law is our number one priority, and we will put everything we’ve got into it,” O’Connor said.
Schubert rejects claims that he is trying to be discriminatory, telling me that the effort to repeal is not about hate, but is to protect “the most sensitive areas of our public schools” by not opening them to members of the opposite sex.