During a week of flurry before Labor Day, the California Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees determined which final legislation to pass to the floor for votes and which to suspend for this session. At the end of the day on Friday, Aug. 30, one bill superseded the usual drama to create a pall over California Democratic unity as LGBTQ legislators and advocates expressed outrage that purported supporters used anti-LGBTQ messaging to woo electoral votes in 2020.
…
However, in a move that infuriated LGBTQ advocates and law enforcement allies, Assembly Appropriation Chair Lorena Gonzalez suspended Wiener’s SB 145 that would fix the current discriminatory sex offender registry law written before homosexuality was decriminalized.
…
Equality California was among the fairness and equality advocates angry that Gonzalez seemed to substitute her own judgement over that of law enforcement and LGBTQ and allied civil rights groups and placed SB 145 on suspension to now become a two-year bill, eligible for consideration in 2020.
The move was cheered by anti-LGBTQ Christians. “A California bill that could have prevented homosexuals from having to register as sex offenders for having sex with consenting minors has been blocked,” Christian Action Network reported Sept. 3.
If it’s one thing people within the LGBT community need to understand, its that agreeing with registries Is still agreeing with them being singled out for abuse. After all, the topic of homosexuality is still taboo just like sex offenders. Yes, you may have some PC people who say nice things in public, but being closed doors they consider them and sex offenders one of the same……
Christians huh? While that is some people’s view, not all. What a bs posting. Kind of like how we do not want to be under the same umbrella, do not people their religious beliefs in a post like this.
Christians are a real pain in the ass. Hypocrite assholes.
I KNEW AS SOON AS I SAW that bitch Gonzalez listed there in Appro Comm that she would shit on us.
Not only does she personally vendetta 290s she doesnt trust LGBTQI’s and when I noted she was Chair.
I knew that she would squash or WHATever she could do to stop or dissapear Sen Wiener’s Bill she would.
Had a GUT FEELING of illness today when we prep for Oak’s Pride Day, that there was an update here.
Sure enough, and being the 1st to reply, found it to be true.
Powered she does NOT deserve nor Earn to take PERSONAL Attacks to the Comm before all of the one’s against.
Gonzalez needs to step down and does NOT believe in Equality. Gonzalez has always had HATRED for RC’s.
And goes out of her way and had the Right Wing over done Ck a Fil group show up at their committee.
I would of been handcuffed for speaking out and getting in that groups face post session with their ugly comments and her fasheded statements of neglect and her Political realm.
MAKES ME SICK to my stomach.
I’m sorry, I know that Janice, Chase, Senator Wiener and many people supported SB145….yes, current laws are discriminatory.
But how about doing something really important….like a real concerted effort to throw Lorena Gonzalez out of office. I mean strategy sessions on the best means, I mean contributing some funds to whoever opposed this ( witch–insert very bad word here).
I will further apologize but we don’t need SB145…we need a complete repeal of the entire rickety monstrosity that is the Registering of Human beings…after sentencing….for anything.
What Wiener needs to submit is a bill that rips out the RSO laws root and branch.
I will of course follow and respect and will do anything Janice asks me to do…but I will not weep for the loss of this bill…my fervent wish is that this militantizes the LGBTQ community…not against Democrats, but rather where the wrath belongs…against Lorena Gonzalez and/or the whole damned RSO evil scheme.
Good Luck to all of us, James I
Why the gay community would hitch their sled to the Democratic Socialists in the first place is beyond me. The gay communities plight here is an example of how fast those folks would throw gays ( or any group) under the bus.
The D’s are organized unions and lobby and their corporate accountants and lawyers. The reason IMHO D’s are bailing on you is the issue of ” marriage. That is identified by the general population as a bridge to far. The SCOTUS ruling on the issue has fomented a reaction not merely from the far right evangelical but also the humanists and agnostic middle left.
LGBT people are 3-5 times more likely to be prosecuted for sex offenses than their heterosexual peers for the same behavior.
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/DAJ17_03Woods.pdf
https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/8/05/injustice-how-sex-offender-registry-destroys-lgbtq-rights
In March of 2019 I submitted a Public Records Request to the State of California, asking for information regarding the sexual orientation of registrants on Megan’s Law. Although they do not keep records of registrant sexual orientation per se, they do maintain records regarding gender. The state wrote:
“As of March 27, 2019, of the 27,902 sex offender registration records with victim information in the registry’s database, the following offender-victim totals were identified:
24,346 offenses involved opposite sex offenses
3,692 offenses involved same-sex offenses
6,651 offenses occurred against victims with an unknown gender
9 of the sex offender registration records involved a transgender offender for which no victim typology was reported”
Basic math shows that same-sex offenses make up over 13% of the registrants in this data set (3,692 / 27,902), yet UCLA and Gallup polls estimate the number of LGBT Americans as being between 3 and 4.5% of the population. That means that even in California, LGBT people are 3-4 times more likely to end up on the registry than are heterosexual individuals.
I also have personal experience with this. I was convicted of engaging in a sexual act with a minor who was 6 weeks from the age of consent. When I moved to California from out of state, I was required to register pursuant to Megan’s Law even though another individual who was convicted of an identical out of state offense as me (down to the sub-sub-paragraph of the statute) was NOT required to register in California (the state of conviction does not make distinctions about different kinds of sexual acts – everything is under the blanket term of “sexual act.”). I obtained a copy of his docket record. We are the same age, our offenses were committed within one year of each other, and we were convicted in the same courthouse by the same judge. The only difference is that his victim was female and mine was male. When I challenged my requirement on this basis, the DOJ wrote back to me stating that, “…offenses which do not involve vaginal intercourse are thus not substantially similar for purposes of equal protection.”
My conviction resulted in years continuing harassment and stalking from anti-LGBT hate groups that try to promote the idea all gay men are pedophiles. This is a common narrative among anti-LGBT hate groups (I refuse to call them “Christian” because their practices are so counter to religious faith).
I support a total and complete abolishment of the registry for everyone, but anything we can do to undermine it and chip away at it is useful. SB 145 would likely remove a significant number of individuals from the registry and would help end the stigma surrounding LGBT people as being sexually perverse and predatory.
Aside from this bill, are there any attempts to to outlaw or reconfigure the static-99 assessment of 290s upon prison release, bc homosexuals are immediately given a higher risk assessment.
From my experience the media distorts facts and sensationalizes headlines. Why are we getting off topic with the media statement…”The move was cheered by anti-LGBTQ Christians. “ Has not everyone on our registry been listed or labeled by the media distortion as some sort of Preying Monster? Bottom line is a true Christian will not judge others; and understands how to forgive 70×7 times (Matthew 18:22). Any person claiming to be Christian and does not understand this (among many other things in scripture) are not and should not call themselves a Christian.
I personally don’t agree with the bill at all!! If your gay and molest/or have sex with an underage boy, it’s ok? Yet, if your a man who is straight and has sex with an underage girl? Geez