Herman Rowland Sr., the chairman of
Jelly Belly, donated $5,000 to the effort to repeal California's
first-in-the-nation transgender student law, known as Assembly Bill
1266.
The law, signed in August by Governor
Jerry Brown, requires public schools to allow transgender K-12
students access to the restroom and locker room of their choice.
Those students can also decide what sports they want to play.
The group Privacy for All Students is
collecting signatures for a voter initiative. The deadline to submit
the petitions is less than two weeks away.
According to Frontiers,
the donation was posted on the Secretary of State's website.
The donation has provoked a Change.org
petition from the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), which
lobbied for the law.
“Stop hurting transgender students by
funding the effort to overturn California's new School Success and
Opportunity Act,” reads
the petition, which is addressed to Rowland. “This law ensures
that transgender students are allowed to participate in school
programs and activities just like every other boy and girl.”
The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, has
endorsed the repeal effort and lent its political director, Frank
Schubert, to head the campaign.
(Related: Gay
marriage foe NOM endorses effort to repeal transgender student bill.)