That was a headline in the Sacramento Bee this morning. For those of you who don't know, Sacramento is California's capital, and the Bee (the local newspaper) watches the state government closely. Assembly bill 2199 seeks to repeal a law passed in 1967 that requires the state Department of Mental Health to "plan, conduct and cause to be conducted scientific research into the causes and cures of sexual deviation... and the causes and cures of homosexuality..."
The bill was introduced by Democratic assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal of Long Beach. A spokesperson for the Department of Mental Health said that if any research was ever done it ended decades ago. Equality California, the statewide gay rights group, brought the law to the attention of the assemblywoman. She said "The fact that this language has survived this long is pretty amazing. We need to blot it out and make it clear that we're moving forward as a society, not backward."
Let's hope that it passes. I don't need to be "cured". It seems to me that someone should have the responsibility to look over old laws every few years and bring shit like this to everyone attention and get rid of it. Until a few years ago there were still local laws on the books mandating that certain "races" of people couldn't live in areas of Sacramento. It took the state legislature to act to remove the laws, even though they weren't enforceable.
Sorry to quote a newspaper story so much, but this shit gets me really angry.
On a more positive note, I saw that Minnesota's legislature is holding a hearing Monday on bills to allow marriage equality there, and another to establish a domestic partnership with many of the rights of marriage. The bills won't be voted on, and some in the state say that the hearing is just for show, but any little bit of progress is progress. I think of Mikey (of hockeykidmn.com)as I write this, since he lives in Minnesota and is the one that got me started in blogging. Marriage probably isn't an issue for Mikey now, but maybe it will be in the future.
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It's funny how little things like that are just lying around waiting to be cleaned up. I'm kind of surprised that something so seemingly simple would face opposition.
ReplyDeleteHi GMB. The article didn't mention any opposition, so let's hope that the right wing doesn't raise any.
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