Gavin Newsom wants to be the next president.
He just showed you exactly what that would look like for America's churches.
What he ordered California pastors to teach their staff – and who gets to write the definition – will tell you everything.
California's Anti-Hate Speech Training Law Has No Legal Definition of Hate Speech
Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1803 – a measure folded into California's existing sexual harassment training mandate – requiring every employer with five or more workers, including every church in the state, to add "anti-hate speech" training by January 1, 2028.
Every pastor's assistant, youth coordinator, and church secretary in California must now sit through instruction on what the state decides is "hate."
Sacramento never bothered to define the term. The California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment confirmed in its own bill analysis that "committee staff is not aware of a definition of hate speech in California law" – not a working definition, not a placeholder, nothing.
The job of deciding which speech "vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred" – the actual language of AB 1803 – falls to the California Civil Rights Department, the same unelected bureaucrats who already ruled that using an accurate biological pronoun for a transgender-identified coworker is harassment and that objecting to a coworker's use of the wrong restroom is harassment.
AB 1803 layers a new "hate speech" component on top of that existing framework.
California has been moving in this direction for years. Newsom already mandates that transgender-identified male inmates be housed with female prisoners, forces insurers to cover sex-change procedures, and directs school districts to keep parents in the dark when children show signs of gender dysphoria.
Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, pointed out that many California legislators have already labeled Christian beliefs about biological sex as "hate" the moment they are spoken aloud – and now they have a law that lets unelected bureaucrats enforce that label on every employer in the state.
"Sacramento just gave itself the power to decide which convictions are hateful and then ordered every employer in the state to teach that verdict," Burt said.
AB 1803 never mentions churches, never creates religious exemptions, and never addresses the First Amendment rights of religious organizations to hold sincere beliefs about sexuality and marriage. Sacramento left that silence there on purpose.
The First Amendment Case That Makes Newsom's New Law Unconstitutional
In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Matal v. Tam that there is no "hate speech" exception to the First Amendment.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote that speech which demeans on the basis of religion, gender, or any other protected characteristic is hateful in some people's eyes – but the Constitution protects it regardless.
Newsom signed AB 1803 knowing that ruling existed.
California is not confused about the law. California is betting that churches will comply before anyone forces them to fight.
A Christian employee named Dennis McCourt – a worker at an out-of-state Bible software company – was put through workplace harassment training that required him to affirm gender ideology, and refused to click through.
"You could put a gun to my head," McCourt told the California Family Council. "I won't do it."
Burt says churches have real options. Existing California and federal law already require employers to provide religious accommodations to employees whose sincerely held beliefs conflict with mandatory training, and churches that have requested those accommodations have been accommodated.
California also left open a legal question about whether its own nonprofit religious employer exemption already shields churches from AB 1803 entirely – a question Sacramento has no interest in answering.
The window before January 2028 is time to prepare legal challenges, request exemptions, and refuse to let Sacramento bureaucrats write the theology that staff is required to affirm.
Burt had a final message for California pastors.
"I'm sure they're already thrilled that they get to retrain the entire population to believe what they believe regarding gender identity," he said. "You've got to resist."
Sources:
- Dan Hart, "New California Law Requires Churches to Implement Pro-LGBT 'Anti-Hate Speech' Training," The Daily Signal, October 11, 2026.
- California Family Council, Statement and Analysis on AB 1803, 2026.
- Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, "California Can't Define 'Hate Speech' But May Mandate Workplace Training Anyway," 2026.
- Matal v. Tam, 582 U.S. 218 (2017), Supreme Court of the United States.
