California-based toy stores are now required to have gender-neutral departmentsum January, under threat of a fine.
This is a law introduced by the California legislature in 2021 and officially took effect in early 2024, CNN reported.
As a result, any toy retailer operating a store in this state and employing at least 500 employees must “maintain a gender-neutral section or section, the designation of which is left to the discretion of the retailer.”
The bill came about after an eight-year-old girl asked, “Why would a store tell me what a t-shirt or a girl's toy is?” Rep. Evan Low is behind the initiative.
“His bill will help children express themselves freely and without prejudice. “We have to let children be children,” he said, according to American media.
Stores that fail to comply with these new rules could be fined $250 for each first violation and $500 for subsequent violations.