Students who are born as boys will be able to play sports and join cheerleaders' squads as girls at California schools.

Gov. Jerry Brown today signed Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's School Success and Opportunity Act into law. It goes into effect Jan. 1. Ammiano sounds elated in this statement his office sent out this afternoon:

This is terrific. The Governor's signature represents an important victory, not just for my bill, but for a whole movement for the rights of transgender people. We had children testify in the Assembly and Senate that this law will mean they no longer must hide who they are, nor be treated as someone other than who they are.

Ammiano's office says the transgender equality was already the law in California, but that this clarifies it for districts that need some help reading the fine print:

AB 1266 would ensure that students who are transgender have equal access to facilities and activities like sports teams that match their gender. … Public schools would be required to respect a transgender student's identity in all school programs, activities and facilities.

It will be the first transgender equality rule in American that's “written into state codes,” Ammiano's office says.

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