Calif. retailers that refuse gender-neutral toy sections will be fined up to $500 under new law

Major retailers in California are just weeks away from having to create gender-neutral toy sections for children — or risk being fined hundreds of dollars under a controversial state law set to take effect in the new year.

Under the terms of the legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2021, California-based department stores with 500 or more employees that sell “childcare items or toys,” must have a gender-neutral section “regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys.”

It defines “childcare items” as any product designed to facilitate sleep, feeding children, relaxation, or “to help children with sucking or teething” and defines children as those 12 and under.

Any department store that fails to create a gender-neutral section could face a $250 fine for the first violation, and a $500 fine for any subsequent violations.

The new law does not prohibit typical boys and girls sections.

LGBTQ advocates called the measure a win at the time the legislation was signed, arguing the pink and blues hues of traditional marketing methods pressure kids to fit gender stereotypes.

“Keeping similar items that are traditionally marketed either for girls or for boys separated makes it more difficult for the consumer to compare the products and incorrectly implies that their use by one gender is inappropriate,” part of the legislation states.

The bill was originally introduced into the California Assembly by Assemblyman Evan Low, who compared it to earlier laws that require publicly-traded companies to add women to their corporate boards, force employers to release pay data to improve gender equity, and require single-occupancy bathrooms to use “all-gender” signs, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Traditionally, children’s toys and products have been categorized by a child’s gender,” Low told his fellow lawmakers at the time, according to the Washington Post.

“In retail, this has led to the proliferation of [science, technology, engineering and mathematics]-geared toys in a ‘boys’ section and toys that direct girls to pursuits such as caring for a baby, fashion and domestic life.

“The segregation of toys by a social construct of what is appropriate for which gender is the antithesis of modern thinking.”

Similar legislation put forward in 2019 and 2020 failed.

Children are able to decipher which toys are meant for girls and which are meant for boys at the age of 3, according to Campbell Leaper, a professor of psychology at University of California Santa Cruz.

“We know from a variety of different research once they have those categories in their heads, and if you try to label something for girls or boys, children will often ignore it if it’s labeled for the other gender,” he told the LA Times.

Low said that is why he was encouraged to write the bill.

“We need to stop stigmatizing what’s acceptable for certain genders and just let kids be kids,” he told the Associated Press after Newsom signed it into law.

“My hope is this bill encourages more businesses across California and the US to avoid reinforcing harmful and outdated stereotypes,” he said, adding that he was “incredibly grateful” to receive Newsom’s support.

But some saw the bill as government overreach, and its way of forcing social change on companies.

“Activists and state legislators have no right to force retailers to espouse government-approved messages about gender,” Jonathan Keller, president of the conservative California Family Law Council lobbying group argued, according to the Washington Post.

“It’s a violation of free speech, and it’s just plain wrong.”

Target dropped boys and girls sections in 2015 with other retailers following suit, the LA Times reported. 

Gov. Newsom’s office did not immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday evening.  

With Post wires