Gender Cops

California wants shoppers to be spies:

State law, established by the passage of Assembly Bill 1084 in 2021, which took effect at the beginning of 2024, requires department stores with at least 500 employees across California locations to offer children’s sections that do not separate items based on gender. “By requiring large retailers to maintain a gender-neutral section, AB 1084 makes it more difficult for these retailers to engage in gender-based pricing discrimination and reduces the imposition of gender stereotypes on children,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a statement. Violators face fines of $250 for the first offense and $500 for any subsequent instances. Bonta is asking shoppers to take pictures and file complaints against stores that are failing to comply. Standards of compliance, however, are flexible, with ambiguity written in the text of the law, according to consultants with the state Senate Judiciary Committee in a Legislative analysis published in 2021.

Big Brother is shopping you...