Acts & Laws

Student Non-Discrimination Act

A bill introduced by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and endorsed by Pres. Obama making homosexuality a federally protected class.

Al Franken adds: "It gives them sort of the same civil rights as racial minorities got from the '64 Civil Rights Act, that women got from Title IX,."... "I think more people are beginning to see this for what it is. ... This is a group of people that just overwhelmingly are the victims of bullying and harassment."

Seth's Law

California Legislature passed "Seth's Law," making it mandatory for schools to formally investigate bullying claims. Seth Walsh was a 13 year old that hung himself after bullies harassed him and his mother stopped it.

Matthew Shepherd Act

Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act- making assault based on sexual orientation a federal crime.

From wikipedia: The Act is named after two victims of bias-motivated crimes in the United States, Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.^[7] Matthew Shepard was a student who was tortured and murdered in 1998 near Laramie, Wyoming because he was perceived to be homosexual.^[7] James Byrd, Jr. was an African-American man who was tied to a truck by two known white supremacists, dragged from it, and decapitated in Jasper, Texas in 1998.^[7]

The Unruh Civil Rights Act

is a piece of California legislation that specifically outlaws discrimination based on age,^[1][2] sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, marital status, or sexual orientation.^[3] This law applies to all businesses, including but not limited to hotels and motel, restaurants, theaters, hospitals, barber and beauty shops, housing accommodations, and retail establishments.^[4] This law was enacted in 1959, and was named for the author Jesse M. Unruh. The Unruh Civil Rights Act is codified as California Civil Code section 51.^[5]

The Ralph Civil Rights Act

The Ralph Civil Rights Act, Civil Code section 51.7, addresses the repugnance of racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, and political violence in California by providing civil and administrative remedies for those who are victims of this type of violence, or of violence directed against any particular class of persons.

The Ralph Act provides that all persons within this state have the right to be free from violence committed against themselves or their property because of their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, ⁽¹⁾ age, disability, position in a labor dispute, or because another person perceives them to have one or more of these characteristics. ⁽²⁾

The Ralph Act also declares that the prohibited types of discrimination listed in section 51.7 are merely illustrative. This means that if someone threatens you or commits a violent act against you because you possess, or are perceived to possess, a characteristic which is shared by members of any identifiable group, you may have a claim under this law.

http://oag.ca.gov/publications/CRhandbook/ch1

The Bane Civil Rights Act

The Bane Civil Rights Act, Civil Code section 52.1 and Penal Code section 422.6 et seq., prohibits violence or the threat of violence based on grounds such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, age disability or position in a labor dispute. Civil Code section 52.1 protects all people within this state from interference with their free exercise or enjoyment of the rights guaranteed them by the state or the United States.

If the interference is by means of speech alone, however, no remedy will be available to you under the Bane Act unless it can be shown that the speech itself threatened violence against you; that you reasonably feared violence would be committed against you or your property because of the speech; and that the person threatening violence had the apparent ability to carry out the threat. ⁽⁸⁾If anyone interferes with your rights under this law ⁽⁹⁾ by threats, intimidation, or coercion, you may be able to get a court order banning this behavior and be awarded for money lost and emotional distress, as well as a $25,000 civil penalty and attorney's fees. ⁽¹⁰⁾

The Attorney General, your local district attorney or city attorney may also seek court orders to ban the unlawful behavior and other appropriate relief. ⁽¹¹⁾If you believe you have a claim under this Act, you may either file a private lawsuit or contact the Attorney General's Office, your local district attorney or city attorney. The court may grant an injunction prohibiting further intimidating or coercive behavior. Any violation of this order is a misdemeanor and may result in fines or imprisonment. ⁽¹²⁾ If a judgment is awarded in your favor in a private lawsuit, you may receive reasonable attorney's fees as well. ⁽¹³⁾

Penal Code section 422.6. In addition to civil remedies, the Bane Act establishes criminal remedies. Penal Code section 422.6, subdivision (a), makes it unlawful to, by force or threat of force, oppress, injure, intimidate, or interfere with any other person in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right secured by the state or federal government because of the other person's race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender, or sexual orientation or because it is perceived that the victim has one or more of these characteristics. If the force or threat of force is through speech alone, it must be shown that the speech itself threatened violence against a specific person or group of persons, and that the accused had the apparent ability to carry out the violence.

Senate Bill (SB) 1172  - signed by Governor Jerry Brown September 29, 2012, which I signed the petition :)

From the Huffington Post: "By signing S.B. 1172, Brown made California the first state in the nation to ban conversion therapy for children. This dangerous and discredited "therapy" -- sometimes known as "reparative therapy" or "ex-gay therapy" -- claims to change people from gay to straight. The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, not only protects California children but paves the way for a national effort to end this dangerous practice. It has already inspired a similar bill in New Jersey.

People need to know that conversion therapy is junk science. It has been discredited or highly criticized by all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological, and professional counseling organizations. In 2006 the American Psychological Association stated, "There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed."  more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-p-sun/jerry-brown-conversion-therapy_b_1935870.html

I also just attended a seminar September 26th, 2012 on 'reparative therapy' by Wayne Besen, Founder and Executive Director of http://www.truthwinsout.org/

Stuff from La weekly 6.1-6.7.2012 - "The Gay Selma"

The arrival of AIDS in the '80s forced sex-education programs to acknowledge the existence of homosexuality. That in turn triggered a righteous panic. In 1987, Republican Sen. Jesse Helms took to the Senate floor brandishing a Gay Men's Health Crisis comic as part of his successful bid to ban federal funding for AIDS education materials that "promote or encourage, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities."

Eight states still have language on their law books derived from Helms' "no homo promo" policy. In Texas, sex-ed classes are required to teach that homosexuality is "not an acceptable lifestyle and is a criminal offense." In Arizona, the law forbids schools from portraying homosexuality "as a positive alternative lifestyle."

"There was this fear that if you were talking about gay people, you were having inappropriate conversations with students about sex," says Kim Westheimer, director of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Welcoming Schools project.

The gay-rights movement began to push back in the '90s. Kevin Jennings, an openly gay teacher in Boston, founded the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network to help educators who wanted to offer counsel to gay kids. In 1999, a judge affirmed that Gay-Straight Alliance clubs had a right to gather on school grounds.

Allies of gay youth compiled research showing gay teens are overwhelmingly more likely than heterosexuals to face harassment at school. The most recent figures from GLSEN reported that 84.6 percent of LGBT students are verbally harassed. A third of gay kids had skipped school within the past month because they were afraid of their classmates.

A Northwestern University researcher just published the first longitudinal study on LGBT youth and suicide. It found that victims of bullying were two and a half times more likely to attempt suicide or hurt themselves. It also showed that even when the kids had supportive figures in their lives, harassment still correlated strongly with suicidal thoughts.

"The vast majority of LGBT youth in our sample had experienced some kind of victimization," says Dr. Brian Mustanski, the study's lead author and director of the Impact LGBT Health and Development Program. "People had spit on them or yelled at them, threatened or physically attacked them."

By the time the suicides of September 2010 arrived, the correlation between gay bullying and self-harm was becoming too obvious to ignore.

"We should no longer accept the idea that bullying is a rite of passage for young people," says Carolyn Laub, founder and executive director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. "What we know from years of practice on the ground is that anti-LGBT bullying and harassment and name-calling are learned behaviors, and they can be interrupted and stopped."

What gay students go through isn't bullying as it's conventionally understood.

"Those kids have not been bullied; they've been harassed," says Dr. Susan Strauss, author of Sexual Harassment and Bullying: A Guide to Keeping Kids Safe and Holding Schools Accountable. "It requires the schools to respond differently. It's important for parents to know that if the school doesn't respond, they can file charges with the state's Department of Civil Rights."

States that have "no homo promo" laws on the books have significantly fewer Gay-Straight Alliances. This year, "don't say gay" laws gained traction in Tennessee, Utah and Missouri - they would make any mention of homosexuality in school impermissible.

Anoka-Hennepin school in MN, Six student plaintiffs told of being stabbed with pencils and urinated on in restrooms. The media frenzy culminated with a Rolling Stone article that caught the attention of celebrities including Aziz Ansari and Howard Stern.