 California's legislature has passed state Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco's bill to decriminalize adult men having sex with boys after all opponents to the bill were smeared by the media and Wiener himself as "homophobic" and "anti-Semitic."
"The bill squeaked through the Legislature on the last night of session, passing the 80-member Assembly on a bare minimum 41-18 vote before it was approved 23-10 in the 40-member Senate," the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday. "Several members raised objections to a policy that they argued condoned mistreatment of minors."
Here's a breakdown of the bill last month from The Federalist in an article titled, "No California Shouldn't Decriminalize Adult Sex With 14-Year-Olds":
LGBT activists have pushed reasonable notions of equality to its limits with obscene perversions. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco -- the same lawmaker who co-sponsored a bill in 2017 to remove the felony penalty for knowingly exposing another person to HIV -- has introduced a bill, Senate Bill 145 to give judges more flexibility in sentencing gay men who abuse minors.
Under current law -- which Wiener, who is gay, describes as "horrific homophobia" -- a straight 24-year-old male who has sex with a 15-year-old girl can avoid being put on the sex-offender list if the judge feels the situation does not deserve it, but a gay man in the same scenario with a similar-aged boy would not be given the same option.
Wiener's argument is one of evolving social standards. In 2015, the California Supreme Court upheld the long-standing separation of vaginal sex from other forms of sex-based on the misguided idea that if pregnancy occurred, placing the father on the sex-offender list could ruin his chances of providing for his family. The extreme of the scenario would be an 18-year-old man with a 17-year-old girlfriend.
Wiener's bill, however, is not so straightforward. He argues all forms of sex should be treated equally under the law.
The Law Will Protect Exploitation of Minors
Moreover, while there is room for flexibility in a ruling in which a boy turns 18 while his girlfriend is still 17 and her father presses charges, the bill defines the age minimum at 14. Recognizing that minors cannot legally consent to sex, Wiener argues that if a minor age 14 to 17 voluntarily has sex with an adult who is less than 10 years older, the judge should decide based on the individual facts of the case whether the adult should be placed on the sex-offender registry. Data provided by Wiener's office states, "[A]t least 2,400 people on the [CA] sex-offender registry, and potentially hundreds more, have been convicted of non-vaginal sex with a minor age 14 or older." The stated intent of the prior bill was about keeping families together for the sake of their children. Wiener's bill they just passed is about letting men have sex with boys for carnal pleasure and allowing liberal judges to let them off easy.
Nonetheless, the media -- which together with Wiener previously demonized all opposition to this effort as "anti-Semitic" and "homopobic" -- is claiming the bill is about fighting "discrimination" and "inequality toward LGBTQ people."
From the San Francisco Chronicle, "California bill eliminating sex offender list inequity toward LGBTQ people passes":
California would eliminate a disparity in its statutory rape laws that critics say is a discriminatory vestige of the historic criminalization of gay sex, under a bill sent Monday to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
SB145 by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would remove automatic sex-offender registration for young adults who are convicted of having anal or oral sex with a minor, leaving the decision up to a judge. Newsom has until the end of September to act on the measure.
Under current law, a judge can decide whether to place a man who has vaginal intercourse with an underage teenage girl on the sex offender registry based on the facts of the case. But if anal or oral sex, or vaginal penetration with anything other than a penis is involved, the adult must register as a sex offender — a relic of a penal code that criminalized those acts until 1975, even between consenting adults.
The California Supreme Court upheld the legal difference in 2015, arguing that because vaginal intercourse can lead to pregnancy, forcing a father to register as a sex offender would subject him to social stigmatization that could make it difficult to find a job and support his child.
Wiener's bill would treat all sex acts the same: Although minors cannot legally consent, if a teenager ages 14 to 17 voluntarily had sex with an adult who is less than 10 years older, the judge would have discretion over placing the adult on the sex-offender registry.
"This eliminates discrimination against LGBTQ youth in our criminal justice system," Wiener said on the Senate floor.
The bill squeaked through the Legislature on the last night of session, passing the 80-member Assembly on a bare minimum 41-18 vote before it was approved 23-10 in the 40-member Senate. Several members raised objections to a policy that they argued condoned mistreatment of minors.
"I cannot in my mind as a mother understand how sex between a 24-year-old and a 14-year-old could ever be consensual, how it could ever not be a registrable offense," said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego. "We should never give up on this idea that children should be in no way subject to a predator." Sorry Rep. Gonzalez, you're a homophobic, anti-Semetic bigot if you oppose men having sex with boys.
The media told me so last month when the bill was introduced.
Mother Jones:
LGBTQ Nation:
The Jewish News:
As Wiener himself said while smearing all detractors against the bill: "Those who think homophobia & antisemitism are over are not paying attention."
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