There’s a definite sea change happening in terms of the rights of LGBT Americans, with the fact that same-sex couples can marry in 36 states and Washington D.C. today, when only six states allowed it just three years ago. Even certain X-Men are coming out of the closet to be who they (fictionally) truly are. With all of this change, however, opposition has also risen to keep things the same, or, in the case of such controversial laws like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana, make everyday life harder for those citizens.
In California, however, a proposed ballot measure called the Sodomite Suppression Act aimed to outlaw homosexuality outright and even make it punishable by “death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method,” among other outrageously offensive claims. The act, proposed by Huntington Beach attorney Matthew McLaughlin, will likely never make it to a ballot; in California, to propose an act only requires $200, but it also requires nearly 370,000 signatures to continue onward. The state’s Attorney General has also filed a court order that the proposed bill be removed from the docket. However, using this same tactic, activist Charlotte Laws decided to file a bill of her own: the Intolerant Jackass Act. According to the Los Angeles Times:
The proposed ballot measure — yes, that is its actual name — by Woodland Hills author and activist Charlotte Laws would require anyone who proposes measures calling for the death of gay people to attend monthly sensitivity training and to donate $5,000 to “a pro-gay or pro-lesbian organization.”
Laws said she doesn’t intend to actually get the bill on the ballot, and it was mostly created to make fun of McLaughlin, which is probably a couple hundos well spent. Though, now that it’s out there how easy it is to get an official bill named, we can only hope that knowledge is used to publicly shame more bigots into not being awful people… oh, and effecting positive change for the better. That, too.
Source: Los Angeles Times