Transgender people in Orange County expressed fear and frustration in the wake of a recent TV news report that suggested the mere presence of transgender counselors at a science camp for elementary school children was inappropriate.

The story — and the backlash — comes as transgender rights increasingly are the subject of culture war legislative battles around the country.

In an interview broadcast Feb. 18, two mothers told KTLA television that their daughters – students at Weaver Elementary in Rossmoor – recently attended the overnight camp at Pali Adventures in San Bernardino National Forest. Once home, the girls reported that a couple of counselors at the camp went by the pronouns “they” and “them.”

“I contacted the school and asked if they were able to confirm there was not actually a man sleeping in the same cabin as the girls,” a parent said. “They were not able to confirm that.”

It’s unclear whether the parents claimed that their children mentioned anything about gender. However, the TV reporter described the counselors as “biologically male.”

Though the report noted that the parents didn’t accuse anyone of inappropriate behavior, the reporter did say the parents were angry that Los Alamitos Unified did not tell them about the “policy” of not identifying the sexual identify of the counselors to parents.

But it would be illegal for school or camp officials to ask about or disclose anybody’s sexual identify. California law specifically lists transgender people as a protected class that can’t be discriminated against the workplace, and says that employers cannot ask an employee who identifies as female if they are “biologically male.”

“It’s awful that kids even had to experience this in fifth grade camp,” one of the mother’s told KTLA.

While the report doesn’t clarify what the children “had to experience,” the news clip soon gained national attention. Conservative transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner weighed in on “The Sean Hannity Show,” labeling the situation “terrible.”

Local transgender people and those who support them said the report and the subsequent commentary ramped up tension at a time when many increasingly feel targeted.

Representatives for KTLA declined to comment for the story.

Eva Estrada, of Seal Beach, said her 19-year-old transgender son attended Los Alamitos High. For transgender and gay students, she said, school often can feel “like a very unwelcoming place.”

“My understanding of how he (her son) feels about the science camp controversy is, ‘Once again, we are in the news in a negative way,’” Estrada said.

“It is, unequivocally, a non-story that just reinforces a false narrative about transgender people.”

Another Seal Beach parent of a transgender student at Los Alamitos High noted, “Just because someone is transgender that does not make them a pedophile.”

“This whole dialogue is very hurtful to the already vulnerable community of transgender children,” said the mother, who asked to remain anonymous.

“Just like anyone, children who are non-binary need love and acceptance to get through this world.”

A 2020 study by The Trevor Project, which focuses on suicide prevention among young people who are gay, bisexual and transgender, found that transgender youth were up to 2.5 times more likely to consider suicide than were people who identify with their birth sex. And in Orange County, 11% of the 112 hate crimes reported in 2020 targeted gay or transgender victims.

Days after the science camp broadcast aired and then gained traction in other media, a much bigger story involving transgender teens broke, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared that medical treatments provided to transgender adolescents should be investigated as “child abuse.”

“This has really hit a lot of communities, even outside of Texas,” Joel Gemino, youth and family services manager for LGBTQ Center Long Beach, said about Abbott’s Feb. 22 resolution.

“We are finding that families feel scared, and that transgender youth feel even more isolated and afraid to confide in a trusted adult.”

Negative media portrayals of transgender people, Gemino added, deepens that sense of isolation.

“These kinds of stories create a panic that trans people are dangerous, which is absolutely not the case,” he said. “It’s trans youth who are at much greater risk for violence at the hands of others.”

Susan McGregor, a Columbia University researcher who studies journalistic ethics, said the science camp story “feels like a game of telephone among 10 year olds” – referencing the game in which a message is whispered from one person to the next until it no longer resembles the original.

“Essentially, parents reported that their children told them something that didn’t really happen the way it was reported to have happened,” McGregor said. “Journalists are supposed to go to the original source. But the original source is children, so none of this could be verified.

“It was a rumor picked up by media because it had hot-button key words like non-binary, and then the story (was aired) without any vetting. Almost certainly, the students did not know whether the counselors were biological males.”

Even the parents who shared their complaints on KTLA seemed to avoid describing the counselors as male.

When “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade called the counselors ‘”biologically male” – a scenario that he said “made me sick to my stomach” – one of the mothers interjected, “Just to clarify, we have not actually confirmed that there was a biological male in the cabin.”

McGregor noted that the situation, as reported, was “in accordance with the law,” suggesting the story’s news value centered on the parents feelings about transgender people.

“As news professionals, we have to think carefully about implications before we run with a story. This is a story with no news value that could hurt people.”

Sam Garrett-Pate, managing director of external affairs for LGBTQ civil rights group Equality California, wondered, “So, what is the big news here? That the camp followed the law and treated employees with respect and some parents are upset by that? That’s not a story. That’s just an everyday occurrence.”

Frank Russell, a journalism professor at Cal State Fullerton, also said he was “troubled by the KTLA clip.”

“The parents’ claims did not seem to be verified,” Russell said. “KTLA did follow principles of journalistic ethics by giving both the school district and the camp the chance to respond to the parents’ accusations, but it also put more emphasis on the sensationalistic claims than the response.”

On the other hand, Russell said, he does not hold “Fox & Friends” and “The Hannity Show” to the same standards because they are “opinion programs and not news programs.”

The camp issued a statement saying: “Pali Institute is an equal opportunity employer and always has been, with diversity and inclusion among its core values.”