Senator Wiener, joined by a bipartisan coalition of legislators, proposes expanding California's confidentiality protections for court records related to gender and sex identifier changes. The legislation extends existing privacy safeguards, currently limited to minors, to petitioners of all ages who seek legal recognition of their gender identity.

The bill requires courts to maintain strict confidentiality for all petitions and associated documents in gender marker and name change proceedings. During the petition process, access to these records would be limited to the petitioner, adult co-signers, parents or guardians of minor petitioners, individuals subject to related orders, and their attorneys. After a judgment is granted, access would be further restricted to only the petitioner, adult co-signers, and their legal representatives.

These confidentiality requirements would apply retroactively to all previously filed petitions. The Judicial Council must ensure courts implement methods to protect both existing and future records. Courts must take immediate corrective action, without fees or additional orders, if confidential records are discovered to be publicly accessible. The bill also prohibits anyone except the petitioner from posting these records online or in other public forums.

The legislation's findings cite data from the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute indicating that transgender individuals face four times higher rates of violent victimization compared to cisgender peers. The Department of Justice reports a 10.2% increase in anti-transgender hate crimes between 2022 and 2023. Given these statistics, the bill includes an urgency clause for immediate implementation upon passage.