CoHNA Welcomes the Veto of California Bill SB509 As A Victory for Equality

The divisive bill unfairly targeted vulnerable diaspora communities, while ignoring rising anti-Hindu hate in California, including the vandalization of four Hindu temples.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) welcomes Governor Gavin Newsom's veto of SB509, a California bill ostensibly about Transnational Repression (TNR) that would have painted a target on the back of immigrant-heavy communities. He called out the need to stay flexible in alignment with federal directives, and we agree. Despite months of good faith engagement with the author's office, the bill remained divisive, duplicative, and expensive. Its vague terminology could be weaponized, by vested interests with access to institutional power, to unfairly target vulnerable diaspora communities in the State.

"This is a victory for common sense and equal treatment before law, so we thank Governor Newsom for doing the right thing. Nobody deserves to be labelled 'agents of foreign governments' for simply having an opinion that runs contrary to the ideological bent of powerful privileged lawmakers, academics, and media," said Sudha Jagannathan, CoHNA's board member and head of government relations. "This was truly a community effort. We thank the large number of individual organizations and volunteers who came together to make their voices heard."

Had SB509 become law, it would have given California's Office of Emergency Services the power to train local law enforcement officials on how to identify  "foreign proxies"—without clearly defining who those proxies are, and without any evidence that such threats even exist in the state. It would have put individuals with foreign roots, advocating for their community, at risk of being labelled foreign government "proxies". For instance, California Hindus opposing the vandalisation of their neighbourhood mandir with anti-India graffiti could be labelled as proxies of the Indian government.

Twenty-one Assembly Members had abstained from voting on the measure. In the run up to the veto, dozens of organizations, civic and elected leaders from diverse backgrounds had signed a coalition letter asking the Governor to veto SB509. CoHNA thanks community leaders like Ajay Jain Bhutoria as well as interfaith allies and elected officials who faced attacks for stating professional concerns regarding the bill. It takes courage to stand against powerful voices seeking to subvert institutions.

"For the past two years we have watched in horror as California lawmakers have ignored the real and rising anti-Hindu hate in the state—as documented by the state itself. They have ignored four vandalism attacks on Hindu temples and prioritized bills that further empower privileged groups at the expense of those that do not," said Pushpita Prasad, CoHNA board member and longtime California resident who has been leading efforts to address temple vandalism and hate incidents. "We thank Governor Newsom for staying true to his promise of 'California For All'. Now we must make sure that State institutions like POST also review and revise materials that were created with no input from diverse groups," she added.

SB509 (a redo of the failed AB3027 bill introduced in 2024) attempted to differentiate between various California communities and weaponize rising hate. California's own reporting has shown a rise in anti-Hindu hate for four straight years. In 2024, its report showed alarming levels of anti-Hindu hate, second only to antisemitism in the State. In a stark illustration of this hate, Hindu temples have been repeatedly desecrated by acts of vandalism between December  2023 and March 2025, all under the guise of anti-India slogans. Yet, there have seen no arrests or prosecutions for any of these hate crimes.

The extremists who attack our temples imply, through their actions, that the congregants of these temples are proxies for the Indian government and, thus, perfectly fine targets. This is true even for a temple founded and run by Hindus from places as far away from India as the Caribbean. Our community has been gripped by the very real fear that SB509 would give legal weight to the presumption that Hindu and Hindu places are proxies for the Indian government.

CoHNA is glad to see the failure of this latest attempt to co-opt institutional power for partisan ideological purposes. We demand all lawmakers who voted for this bill to, instead, focus on equality and justice, and spend taxpayer money on real issues facing California. At a time when communities in southern California that were ravaged by wildfire are still struggling to return to normalcy, it is absurd that State lawmakers were ready to stress an already overburdened Office of Emergency Services with needless TNR training.

Today's win is a culmination of the efforts of the entire Hindu American community, and the hundreds of organizations, temples, businesses, and allies that spoke up in the face of attempts to intimidate them. We thank our volunteers and supporters who have been opposing this bill since March 2025. Together, we have made countless calls and emails, had meetings with dozens of legislative offices and gone to Sacramento three times to testify in opposition. CoHNA remains committed to working with lawmakers, interfaith allies, and civic leaders to ensure that California stays true to its promise of equality, fairness, and safety for all communities.

About CoHNA

CoHNA is a grassroots level advocacy and civil rights organization dedicated to improving the understanding of Hinduism in North America by working on matters related to the Hindu community and by educating the public about Hindu heritage and tradition. For more information, please visit https://cohna.org or follow us on X (formerly Twitter),  Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

SOURCE Coalition of Hindus of North America