SACRAMENTO, California (LifeSiteNews) – California retailers are slated to face $500 fines unless they establish designated “gender-neutral” sections for children’s goods under a state law set to take effect next year.

The Daily Wire reported that January will see enforcement of a law Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2021 imposing the requirement on any establishment with 500 employees or more that carries “childcare items,” meaning “any product designed or intended by the manufacturer to facilitate sleep, relaxation, or the feeding of children, or to help children with sucking or teething.”

“We need to stop stigmatizing what’s acceptable for certain genders and just let kids be kids,” claimed Democrat state Assemblyman Evan Low, who introduced AB 10584. “Part of it is to make sure if you’re a young girl that you can find a police car, fire truck, a periodic table or a dinosaur. And then similarly, if you’re a boy, if you’re more artistic and want to play with glitter, why not? Why should you feel the stigma of saying, ‘Oh, this should be shamed,’ and going to a different location?”

“Unlike the author, I actually have children, five of them to be exact,” former Republican state Sen. Melissa Melendez responded during the bill’s debate. “I don’t think parents need the government to step in and tell them how they should shop for their children.”

It is an article of progressive faith that gender is no more than a matter of self-perception that individuals are free to change at will. But according to modern biology, sex is not a subjective sense of self but an objective scientific reality, established by an individual’s chromosomes from their earliest moments of existence and reflected by hundreds of genetic characteristics. For Christians, the issue is further settled by Genesis 1:27, which teaches that God created both sexes in His image.

Yet for years, LGBT activists have worked to promote “gender fluidity,” the idea that sexual identity is separate from biology and discernible only by personal perception, across public education, libraries, health care, and cultural traditions such as beauty contests, school homecomings, and athletic competitions.

Tearing down gender stereotypes in children’s play habits is another of the movement’s goals, with gender-fluidity advocates insisting that girls’ affinity for pink, princesses, and homemaker scenarios while boys are more drawn to trucks, monsters, and action are nothing more than external biases imposed on them by a prejudiced society. Yet a number of studies have shown, to progressives’ frustration, that boys and girls often gravitate toward the traditionally “gendered” options regardless of adult encouragement.