Article – Reduxx
Senator Responsible for Bill Lowering Penalties for Child Sexual Abuse Calls for Drag Queens to be Included in K-12 Curriculum
SHAY WOULAHAN – 7 June 2022 – Reduxx
A politician in California has called for an introduction to Drag Queens to be taught to K-12 school students in his state as part of their basic education.
On June 7, Scott Wiener, a member of the California State Senate, sent social media into a firestorm after tweeting that “Drag Queen 101” should be part of the K-12 curriculum and that an attendance to Drag Queen Story time would “meet the requirements.”
Weiner’s tweet has been met with overwhelmingly negative sentiment, wracking up over 4,500 primarily negative comments from outraged netizens. Almost immediately, users took to Weiner’s political history to caution him against making yet another controversial move.
“Aren’t you the guy that sponsored a bill that relaxes sex offender registry requirements for sodomy and other acts with minors to end “discrimination against LGBTQ young people on the sex offender registry?” You should tread lightly with jokes like this, sir.” Former Georgia Congressional Candidate Barrington Marin II wrote in the replies.
Another user pointed out that Weiner had been responsible for a bill lowering the penalties for intentionally infecting someone with HIV/AIDS. Weiner is known to be open about his usage of PrEP to prevent HIV/AIDS infections.
Wiener, who has been in the California Senate office since 2016, is known for using his political power to advance LGBT activist causes. During his political career he introduced a bill barring San Francisco from doing business with companies based in states that have laws that bar policies banning discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
Controversially, Wiener is responsible for Senate Bill 145, which ended the automatic sex offender registration of adults convicted of having oral or anal sex with children aged 14-18.
At the time, Wiener argued that by not having an automatic registration for sex offenders convicted of penis-in-vagina pedophilic acts, the law unfairly targeted LGBT people. Rather than seeking similar penalties for all forms of child sexual abuse, the bill scrapped the automatic registration altogether and instead allowed for registration to be up to the judges discretion. The bill was signed into law in September of 2020.
Wiener received an extremely negative response to the bill, with many stating it was lowering the penalties for child sexual abuse. Addressing the backlash, Weiner tweeted: “I’ll always fight for LGBTQ youth, even if it means death threats & slander. This is nothing new. LGBTQ people have been slandered as “perverts” & “pedophiles” for all of history. And for all of history, our lives have been threatened. We won’t give up.”
Wiener also authored the infamous Senate Bill 132 which allows incarcerated transgender, non-binary and intersex people to be housed and searched in a manner consistent with their self declared “gender identity.” The policy has resulted in hundreds of male-bodied inmates seeking transfer to women’s institutions, with dozens already being moved. Male inmates do not need to provide any evidence they are transgender or intend on transitioning in order to be approved, and so far, only a scant handful have been denied.
Last month, Reduxx reported that a female inmate had allegedly been sexually assaulted by a trans-identified male transfer…
Newsom signs bill intended to end discrimination against LGBTQ people in sex crime convictions
PHIL WILLON – 11 September 2020 – LA Times
SACRAMENTO —
Discrimination against LGBTQ people in sex crime convictions will be outlawed under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom late Friday evening.
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.
Currently, 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. SB 145 will eliminate automatic sex offender registration in those cases and give judges discretion to make that decision.
Newsom’s decision to sign the legislation promises to have both a state and national political impact. 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.
Assemblyman 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. 31, the final night of the state legislative session.
“This is one of those bills you will take a political hit for,” said Mayes, who left the Republican Party in 2019. “But we also know that it’s righteous and just. This is the time to step up.”
The bill’s author, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), said the disparity in current state law that SB 145 will address is a remnant of California’s old anti-sodomy laws, many since repealed, that were intended to criminalize sex between gay men.
The intent of SB 145, he said, is to address cases in which two people close in age — an 18-year-old and 17-year-old dating in high school, for example — are in a sexual relationship. The 18-year-old can still be convicted of a sex offense but should not automatically be registered as a sex offender, a lifelong designation that is an impediment to finding employment, a place to live and other necessities of life, Wiener said.
“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. “SB 145 simply ends that discrimination by treating LGBTQ young people the exact same way that straight young people have been treated since 1944.”
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.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas recently accused California Democrats of believing “we need more adults having sex with children,” and Donald Trump Jr. 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?”
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.
Dana Williamson, a Democratic political strategist and Cabinet secretary to then-Gov. 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.
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.
“It’s the double-edged sword of leadership,” she said.
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. That defiant act became a catalyst for a nationwide political battle over the issue that ended when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right of LGBTQ people to marry in 2015.
Newsom’s history-making decision faced opposition from the right and in his own party. Republicans pounced on the issue, and some Democrats feared same-sex marriage would energize social conservatives during the 2004 election. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said at the time that Newsom was partly to blame for John Kerry’s presidential loss.
Wiener said opponents have deliberately distorted what the legislation will do in order to exploit anti-LGBTQ sentiment for their own political gain. He noted that police chiefs and prosecutors supported the bill, something he said they would not do if it put children at risk…
