Gavin Newsom tried to shut down California churches during COVID and the Supreme Court said no.
He just signed a law that sends the government directly inside California's churches.
What Newsom did not expect was what California's pastors said next.
California's Hate Speech Law Cannot Define Hate Speech
Assembly Bill 1803 became law last month when Californai Governor Gavin Newsom signed it.
Starting January 1, 2028, every California employer with five or more workers must add "anti-hate speech" instruction to mandatory harassment training.
That includes churches.
The training must cover speech that "vilifies, humiliates, or incites hatred" based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
California law does not define hate speech – not in AB 1803 and not anywhere in state law.
The California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment admitted it in their own bill analysis – "As drafted, AB 1803 does not define hate speech. Committee staff is not aware of a definition of hate speech in California law."
The state is mandating training on a term that does not legally exist.
Greg Burt of the California Family Council told the state legislature: "You cannot regulate what you cannot define."
That did not stop Newsom from signing it anyway.
California's Civil Rights Department has already written the training module churches would be forced to deliver.
It defines gender identity as each person's "internal understanding of their gender" – which the state says may be male, female, "a combination of male and female," "neither male nor female," or nonbinary.
Traditional Christian teaching on sexuality, marriage, and gender does not align with that curriculum.
Newsom Gave California Churches No Religious Freedom Exemption
California's Fair Employment and Housing Act generally excludes nonprofit religious organizations from the state's definition of "employer."
AB 1803 uses a different definition – and contains no explicit exemption for churches.
Churches with five or more employees – and that includes most working congregations across California – have no clear answer on whether they must now deliver government-approved ideology from their own pulpits.
Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills was direct.
Hibbs told Fox News Digital that California's legislature had appointed itself "the moral police and the archbishop as it were" over the conduct of the state's churches. "The Trojan horse has gotten within the walls," he said.
The California Family Council stopped pretending to be patient.
Burt told Tony Perkins' Washington Watch that "this is one of those points in history here in California where civil disobedience is going to be necessary."
Burt also warned that the law forces employers to choose: discipline Christian workers over their religious convictions or face legal liability for failing to act.
Newsom Already Lost the First Amendment Fight Over California Churches
The Supreme Court ruled against Newsom's COVID restrictions on church services in 2021.
Newsom signed AB 2839 in 2024 – a law restricting political speech online – and a federal judge struck it down as a First Amendment violation the following year.
He signed AB 587, a social media content-moderation bill, and the Ninth Circuit reversed it.
Newsom is not new to losing these fights.
The compelled speech doctrine – established in the Supreme Court's 1943 West Virginia v. Barnette decision and reaffirmed in 303 Creative v. Elenis in 2023 – holds that the government cannot force citizens to speak or advocate messages that violate their conscience.
Forcing a pastor to deliver training that defines gender identity as an internal psychological state – directly contrary to biblical teaching – is compelled speech.
California's own committee staff admitted the law "does not define hate speech," which means Sacramento has built a mandate around a term it cannot define, using curriculum that contradicts Christian doctrine, applied to institutions the bill deliberately left unprotected.
Newsom knew what he was doing.
When Newsom tried to lock those doors during COVID, the Supreme Court forced them back open. Now he is walking through carrying a government curriculum and calling it "anti-hate training."
Pastors across California are promising civil disobedience, and the courts will need to back them up – again.
Sources:
- Carly Mayberry, "Christian Groups and Pastors Say New California LGBT Hate Speech Law Is Disguised as Indoctrination," Fox News, October 18, 2026.
- Dan Hart, "New California Law Requires Churches to Implement Pro-LGBT 'Anti-Hate Speech' Training," Daily Signal, October 11, 2026.
- Jeff Charles, "California's New 'Hate Speech' Law Has Some Serious First Amendment Problems," Townhall, October 19, 2026.
- "California Adds Anti-Hate Speech Component to Mandatory Harassment Prevention Training," National Law Review, October 1, 2026.
- "'Civil Disobedience Will Be Necessary': Christian Family Group Sounds Alarm on California's Anti-Hate Speech Training," Christian Post, 2026.
- J.D. Tuccille, "California Can't Define 'Hate Speech' But May Mandate Workplace Training Anyway," Reason, May 1, 2026.
