California state legislature passed a law on Monday easing sex offender registry requirements for sodomy and other sex acts with minors in an effort to end “discrimination against LGBTQ young people on the sex offender registry.”
The bill, introduced by Democrat State Senator Scott Wiener, “would exempt from mandatory registration under the act a person convicted of certain offenses involving minors if the person is not more than 10 years older than the minor and if that offense is the only one requiring the person to register.”
Currently, adults must register as sex offenders if they are convicted of having anal or oral sex with a minor, however a judge may decide whether to place an adult male not more than 10 years older than the minor on the registry if he has vaginal intercourse with a teenage girl.
Wiener described that practice as “blatant discrimination against young LGBT people” who engage in sodomy and perform other sex acts.
According to Wiener, the new bill SB-145, which has not been signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is about treating everyone equally.
“Discrimination against LGBT people is simply not the California way,” he said. “These laws were put in place during a more conservative and anti-LGBT time in California’s history.”
While Wiener says the bill wouldn’t change the legality of the forms of intercourse or the potential sentencing for having sex with a minor, it would give judges the ability to evaluate whether the accused be required to register as a sex offender.
According to the San Francisco Examiner, “SB 145 is being sponsored by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and Los Angeles-based LGBT civil rights organization Equality California. The bill was co-authored by Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton.”
If passed, the bill would overturn the 2015 California Supreme Court ruling that upheld the legal difference, arguing that 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.
