California’s attorney general is reminding shoppers in that state that they can and should report on retailers this holiday season who fail to display a “reasonable” number of gender-neutral toys and children’s products in their aisles. The law mandating the sale of such products went into effect at the beginning of this year. 

Governor Newsom signed the bill mandating the gender-neutral retail sections at the end of the 2021 legislative session, when he says the California legislature took “unprecedented” steps to recover from the pandemic and address historic inequities. At the time, even the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times said the legislation “represents nannyish overreach.”

The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, clearly disagrees, and wants shoppers to stick to the plain text of the law, which includes snitching on stores.

“Does your department store have a gender-neutral children section? As of January 1, 2024, large retail department stores that sell childcare items or toys must maintain a gender-neutral section for these items,” Mr. Bonta’s office said in a recent memo. 

Citing the law signed by Mr. Newsom in 2021, Mr. Bonta says that all “retail department stores that have physical locations in California and 500 or more employees across all California locations must maintain a gender-neutral section, where a reasonable selection of the childcare items and toys for children that they sell must be displayed, regardless of whether these products are traditionally marketed for boys or girls.”

The attorney general says the law makes it “more difficult for these retailers to engage in gender-based pricing discrimination and reduces the imposition of gender stereotypes on children.”

“If you do not see an adequate gender-neutral product section in a large retail department store in California that you believe is covered by this law, you may take pictures, document, and file a complaint with our office,” Mr. Bonta’s staff writes, including a link where shoppers can report on the stores that lack gender-neutral options. 

The law itself does not specify a specific number of gender-neutral toys or products that must be on display, but rather the government requires that a “reasonable” amount of such product be for sale in a gender neutral section of the store that is labeled at the retailer’s discretion. 

“A retail department store that offers childcare items or toys for sale shall maintain a gender neutral section or area, to be labeled at the discretion of the retailer, in which a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys,” the statute says. 

For first time violations of the law, the fine is $250. For all subsequent violations, the fine is $500.