SACRAMENTO—An anti-gay religious group based in Southern California sued the state Nov. 27 to overturn a law that prohibits discrimination against gays in schools.

Advocates for Faith and Freedom filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Diego. It was joined by the Northern California chapter of Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based fundamentalist legal group.

The groups claim the law, which was passed this year, is unconstitutionally vague and violates student privacy by changing the definition of gender in California’s education code.

But the bill’s author, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, said the legislation did not change the state’s discrimination laws. Rather, she said it clarified a 1999 education law.

“There’s no change in the law; it was always the same. All of these truly silly claims that they make about what could happen could have been happening over the last eight years and never did,” she said. “I think they know they don’t have a case. I think it’s purely a fundraising mechanism for them.”

Opponents say the law promotes homosexual, bisexual and transgender lifestyles to children. The law offers the same protection to those groups as it does to others protected under the state’s hate crimes law. The law prohibits discrimination based on disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or association with any of those groups.