CA BALLOT INITIATIVE SEEKS TO KILL GAYS

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By Miriam Raftery

March 23, 2015 (Sacramento) – A shocking California ballot initiative proposal calls for legalized murder of gay and lesbian people by “bullets to the head” or “any other convenient measure.” If the state does not act on the measure within a year, the measure would further empower the public to take the law into their own hands—effectively sanctioning murder.

The proposed initiative authored by Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin has sparked outrage statewide and calls to revoke his law license.  But the action also points up a dangerous loophole in California’s initiative process that may prevent the state from blocking signature gathering efforts for any ballot measure where the author has paid a $200 fee – even if the content advocates violence, is repugnant, or unconstitutional.

The“Sodomite Suppression Act” has been submitted to State Attorney General Kamala Harris, who by law is required to draft a title and 100-word summary.

Although the initiative, if passed, would virtually be guaranteed to be found unconstitutional by the courts, legal experts interviewed by the Sacramento Bee and other news organizations, Harris may have no choice but to allow the initiative process to move forward, meaning you may soon see signature gatherers—though the odds of the measure making the ballot, let alone passing in a state where voters have already approved same-sex marriage seems remote.

The Legislature’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus has written the State Bar asking for an investigation into McLaughlin. Over 8,000 people have signed a petition to the State Bar’s president asking that McLaughlin be disbarred from practicing law for advocating to “legalize the murder” of gays and lesbians.

McLaughlin is testing the limits of free speech in California. But Carol Dahmen, a media consultant who started the petition, notes that McLaughlin “is a lawyer, and he’s advocating for murder.”  The State Bar has confirmed it is investigating the complaints.

The proposed initiative would also ban gay and lesbians from holding public office or receiving public benefits. Anyone belonging to groups advocating “sodomistic propaganda” would similarly be ineligible. That’s a broad definition that could potentially include members of any groups advocating gay rights—even political parties, civil rights groups or certain churches.

Anyone transmitting “sodomistic propaganda” to a minor would be fined $1 million per offense and could also be imprisoned for 10 years or expelled from California for life.

The measure echoes legislation enacted in some African countries, notably Uganda, which has imposed life in prison for homosexuality and once proposed a death penalty for gay or lesbian persons.

This isn’t McLaughlin’s first involvement in the initiative process. He previously submitted an initiative proposal to make the Bible a text book in public schools, a plan that would no doubt violate the U.S. constitutional requirement for church and state separation. That measure never qualified for the ballot.

As for the likelihood of McLaughlin’s measure to authorize murder of gay and lesbians without so much as a trial, the San Francisco Chronicle concludes, “It seems inconceivable that such a proposal would collect the 365,000 valid signatures it would need to make the 2016 state ballot. Or, if it did, that the voters would approve it. Or that any court this side of Uganda or Saudi Arabia would uphold it.”


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ATTORNEY GENERAL FIGHTS ANTI-GAY INITIATIVE

Attorney General Kamala Harris said Wednesday she is seeking a court order in hopes of blocking an initiative proposed by a Huntington Beach attorney that would permit the killing of gays, lesbians, transsexuals or bisexuals. "This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible and has no place in a civil society," Harris said. Attorney Matthew McLaughlin's proposal calls for "any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification to be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method." It would also ban the distribution of "sodomistic propaganda" and bar gays and lesbians from holding public office. Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, an openly gay member of the Assembly, praised Harris for trying to block the initiative.