He noted that police chiefs and prosecutors supported the bill, something he said they would not do if it put children at risk. Wiener said opponents have deliberately distorted what the legislation will do in order to exploit anti-LGBTQ sentiment for their own political gain. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said at the time that Newsom was partly to blame for John Kerry’s presidential loss. Republicans pounced on the issue, and some Democrats feared same-sex marriage would energize social conservatives during the 2004 election. Newsom’s history-making decision faced opposition from the right and in his own party. Supreme Court affirmed the right of LGBTQ people to marry in 2015. That defiant act became a catalyst for a nationwide political battle over the issue that ended when the U.S. Newsom has been an outspoken champion of LGBTQ rights since he was mayor of San Francisco and directed the city to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. “It’s the double-edged sword of leadership,” she said. Williamson said Newsom will probably come under fire, but she doubted signing the bill would harm him politically given his history of support for LGBTQ rights. Jerry Brown, said sex offender registry laws discriminating against the LGBTQ community have been a long-standing problem in California, and she had urged Newsom to sign the bill into law despite the attacks. Nathan Ballard, who worked as an aide to Newsom when he was mayor of San Francisco, had said Newsom may have been wise to veto the legislation and recommend that state lawmakers change the provision with the 10-year age gap, given how the Republicans were weaponizing the issue politically.ĭana Williamson, a Democratic political strategist and Cabinet secretary to then-Gov. used the bill to attack his father’s opponent in the presidential race, tweeting, “Why are Joe Biden Democrats working in California to pander to the wishes of pedophiles and child rapists?” Ted Cruz of Texas recently accused California Democrats of believing “we need more adults having sex with children,” and Donald Trump Jr. The vast majority of the criticism toward the bill was focused on a provision that has been in the state’s sex offender registry law for decades - the 10-year age gap between the minor and the adult. “SB 145 simply ends that discrimination by treating LGBTQ young people the exact same way that straight young people have been treated since 1944.” “It’s appalling that in 2020, California continues to discriminate against LGBTQ people, by mandating that LGBTQ young people be placed on the sex offender registry in situations where straight people aren’t required to be placed on the registry,” Wiener said in a statement Friday night. 31, the final night of the state legislative session. Along with opposition from Republicans in the state Legislature, supporters of President Trump and far-right conspiracy theorists have seized on the bill in an attempt to use the measure as a political wedge issue and rallying cry, with some falsely claiming on social media that California is legalizing pedophilia.Īssemblyman Chad Mayes, an independent from Yucca Valley, warned fellow lawmakers about the potential political consequences just moments before he voted in favor of SB 145 on Aug. ![]() Newsom’s decision to sign the legislation promises to have both a state and national political impact. ![]() SB 145 will eliminate automatic sex offender registration in those cases and give judges discretion to make that decision. The measure, Senate Bill 145, will amend existing state law that allows judges to decide whether an adult convicted of having vaginal sexual intercourse with a minor should register as a sex offender in cases in which the minor is 14 years or older and the adult is not more than 10 years older than the minor.Ĭurrently, adults who are convicted of having oral or anal sex with a minor under those circumstances are automatically added to the state’s sex offender registry. Discrimination against LGBTQ people in sex crime convictions will be outlawed under a new law signed by Gov.
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