Let’s just list this as the next in an ongoing series of reasons why you should be glad that you don’t live in California. (And for those of you who actually do, I don’t have too much pity. You’ve had plenty of warning signals and you should have moved by now.) In the race to lead the nation in identity politics and political correctness taken to the umpteenth degree, California should be surging into the lead. A bill has actually been passed in the State Senate and is now under consideration in the Assembly which would impose criminal penalties – including jail time – if you are found to be addressing a transgender person using pronouns which don’t match the gender they imagine themselves to be. (Daily Caller)

A bill that passed the California state senate and is now moving through the Assembly could threaten jail time for anyone who refuses to use a transgender person’s preferred pronoun. The law is currently limited in its effects to nursing homes and intermediate-care facilities, but if passed, those who “willfully and repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” could be slapped with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison, according to the California Heath and Safety code. The state senate passed the bill 26-12 at the end of May. Since then, the Assembly Judiciary committee recommended the bill unanimously and the General Assembly held its first hearing on the legislation Wednesday.

For the moment, this would only apply in nursing homes. (These are locations which are not traditionally known for an overwhelming number of transgender residents.) But legal analysts are already speculating that the prohibition would spread well beyond those confines and do so quickly.

This is one of those cases where I do honestly hope that they can manage to pass this into law. And then we’ll need a volunteer to go violate it and take this question to court. Can the government actually regulate people’s speech based on whether or not it’s polite enough? If William Johnson prefers to be called “Mr. Johnson” and lets you know it, the polite thing to do would be to refer to him as such. If you continue calling him “Bill” he can be annoyed with you or simply walk away and refuse to talk to such a rude individual. But he can’t have you arrested. But just because a basically fictitious (medically and scientifically), politically favored subset of people are involved, we’re going to make an exception and lock up the offenders?

If this law can actually be passed and survive a challenge, we’ve really thrown in the towel on the Constitution. And I’ll be joining in with one of the people I follow on Twitter with this opinion as well.