Legal Issues Main Focus of CA LGBT Bills Package

Topping the LGBT legislative agenda for lawmakers and advocates in California this year will be a variety of legal issues.

The concerns run the gamut from how people can update their gender and name on government issued IDs and documents and how law enforcement agencies combat hate crimes to eliminating criminal laws that target people living with HIV. The most controversial bill will likely be a proposed change to how the state tracks sex offenders that, if passed, could result in men targeted by police during stings at gay sex cruising sites no longer needing to register as sex offenders.

Other bills address various health concerns within the LGBT community, LGBT data collection by state agencies, and reporting requirements for religious institutions of higher education that discriminate against LGBT students.

The package of 10 bills that Equality California is co-sponsoring this legislative session is the most since 2011, when the statewide LGBT advocacy organization sponsored 12 pieces of legislation, 10 of which were signed into law. This year's legislative package is the largest since EQCA hired Rick Zbur as its executive director in the fall of 2014.

"Every single one addresses LGBT civil rights gaps that are still in place or LGBT health disparities compared to the general public," said Zbur in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

In terms of the bills focused on legal issues, several deal with areas of the law long considered too controversial to tackle. Chief among them is Senate Bill 695, which would create a three-tiered system for California's Sex Offender Registry with registration periods of upwards of 10 years, 20 years, or life.

It would also remove from the registry those who were targeted and arrested by police under former statutes that criminalized homosexual sex between adults, such as stings using undercover cops in public parks or at highway rest areas.

"We had a generation of LGBT people whose lives have been ruined for being LGBT or engaging in LGBT sexual activity at a time when it was criminalized," said Zbur.

California is one of only four states with a universal lifetime registry for sex offenders, and there are over 100,000 registrants, far more than any other state, according to EQCA. The legislation would base a person's placement on the tiered registration system based on the seriousness of the crime, the risk of reoffending, and the person's criminal history.

Gay state Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), one of the chamber's most liberal members who has made law reform one of her chief areas of focus, are the bill's co-authors.

In response to a request for comment, Mitchell's office referred the B.A.R. to Lara's office since he is the bill's lead author. In an emailed reply, Lara stated, "California has made progress in righting the wrongs of history, when same-sex relationships were considered a crime in California. While many who were convicted of charges that are no longer a crime have been removed from the registry, SB 695 will bring fairness for LGBT individuals who may remain on the registry decades after they were put there because of a consensual same-sex relationship. By removing these individuals, law enforcement can instead focus on those who pose a risk to public safety."

In addition to EQCA, the bill's co-sponsors include the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, the California Sex Offender Management Board, and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Another bill that would change the state's criminal statutes is SB 239, which would modernize the state's HIV criminalization laws adopted during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. As the B.A.R. has previously noted, under the bill a person could only be prosecuted for intentionally transmitting HIV if their sex partner tested positive for the virus.

Under current law, HIV-positive persons may be prosecuted for engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse with the specific intent to transmit HIV even if no actual transmission of the virus occurs. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison.

Another law on the books targets sex workers who are HIV-positive. If the person is convicted of solicitation, even if they did not engage in intercourse, they can be sentenced to prison for 16 months or longer. That would no longer be the case under the proposed legislation.

Gay lawmakers state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) are the lead authors of the bill. A number of legal groups and AIDS agencies are supporting the legislation, which will be the focus of a special informational hearing at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 8 at the Statehouse.

"The bottom line is this bill is good for public health," said Zbur.

Name Change and Hate Crimes Bills

Two of the bills aim to ease the state's name change procedures for transgender, intersex, and non-binary individuals. As the B.A.R. first noted in January, lesbian state Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) teamed with Wiener to co-author SB 179 - the Gender Recognition Act of 2017. It would allow people to choose "non-binary" as the gender on their birth certificates and other documents.

It would also streamline the process people use to update their gender and names on documents. One change would be that people would no longer need a letter from their doctor attesting to medical treatment.

Atkins has also introduced SB 310 - the Name and Dignity Act - which establishes the right of transgender people incarcerated in state prisons or county jails to petition the court directly to change their legal name or gender marker. It would also require corrections officials to use the new name of a person who obtains a name change, and to list the prior name only as an alias.

A pair of bills deals with how hate crimes are handled by law enforcement agencies. Assembly Bill 800, authored by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), would establish a statewide, toll-free hotline and an online form to report hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents and provide information to support targeted communities.

AB 1161, authored by Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), would require local law enforcement agencies to update their policies on hate crimes and provide guidance to strengthen those policies. According to EQCA, the bill would help the police in recognizing hate crimes when they have occurred, engaging in appropriate response given the targeted community and the broader community, and fostering a community environment that prevents future hate crimes and incidents from occurring.

"Part of the issue is law enforcement doesn't always see hate crimes when they are in fact hate crimes," explained Jo Michael, EQCA's legislative manager.