This Week Inside the Capitol - June 7, 2010

In June 1969, violent demonstrations erupted against a police raid at a homosexual bar in Greenwich Village. This marked the beginning of a pro-homosexual movement to mainstream gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) behavior. Known as the Stonewall Riots, its anniversary today is celebrated in the homosexual community during June, as GLBT Month. 

On Friday, by a vote of 25-9, the California Senate passed SR 44, a resolution proclaiming June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Month and urging all Californians to celebrate the accomplishments of LGBT people and work to advance their equality.

The California Legislature has a long history of celebrating June as Gay Pride Month. A strong block of lesbian and gay legislators has promoted an incremental approach to the promotion of pro-homosexual laws, including passing homosexual marriage in 2005 (AB 849 was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) and annually displaying exhibits in the Capitol honoring homosexuals and lesbians during the month of June.

SR 44 is a resolution, which does not have the force of law; it only expresses the opinion of the Senate, but it – and many other proposals approved by the Legislature – continue to show how hopelessly out of touch with California families our legislators are. 

A new chapter begins in the California Legislature this month. Bills that did not pass their houses of origin prior to Friday are “dead” for the year and cannot be reconsidered. Surviving bills now begin the trek through a second chamber – going through committee analysis and votes – and passing the floor by August 31. Then, the governor will have until the end of September to sign, veto or allow bills to pass into law without his signature.

As act two begins today, below are the bills California Family Council is tracking and their current statuses. Keep up-to-date by following our legislation at californiafamily.org.  

SB 962 (Liu, D-Glendale) – would allow incarcerated parents – who have waived their right to attend the hearing terminating their parental rights – to view the hearing via videoconferencing.
Assembly Public Safety Committee June 15, 2010

*SB 1064 (Alquist, D-San Jose) – would make changes, including requiring the creation of a succession plan, to the stem-cell agency created by voters with Proposition 71 in 2004.
Passed Senate 33-0; in Assembly

SB 1279 (Pavley, D-Santa Monica) – would authorize a pilot program to help commercially sexually exploited minors in Los Angeles County, identical to a program currently operating in Alameda County.
Assembly Public Safety Committee June 15, 2010

SB 1285 (Steinberg, D-Sacramento) – would expand punitive damages in cases of human trafficking. 
Assembly Judiciary Committee

*SB 1300 (Correa, D-Santa Ana) – Pupils: Teen Dating Violence Prevention, would authorize a school district to provide teen dating violence-prevention education as part of the sexual health and health education program it provides to grades 7 to 12.
Passed Senate 22-8; in Assembly

SB 1361 (Corbett, D-San Leandro) – would prohibit social networking sites from displaying the home address or phone number of a minor.
Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media Committee

SB 1451 (Yee, D-San Francisco) – requires the California State Board of Education to review proposed textbooks for content deemed to result from Texas’ recent action – and to insure that the materials satisfy guidelines in current California law. The bill would also require the board to keep the Secretary of Education, and the chairmen of both the Senate and Assembly education policy committees informed of this information.
Assembly Education Committee June 16, 2010

SJR 28 (Kehoe, D-San Diego) – would urge the Congress and the President of the United States to enact legislation to have the 2020 Census gather data on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Senate Judiciary Committee June 15, 2010

AB 33 (Nava, D-Santa Barbara) – would require the development of uniform, minimum guidelines for peace officers in handling cases of missing children. 
Senate Public Safety Committee

AB 34 (Nava, D-Santa Barbara) – would require quicker response times – and the release of certain information to nonprofit agencies – when a child under 16 is missing.
Senate Public Safety Committee

AB 1022 (Nava, D-Santa Barbara) – would establish a task force at the Department of Justice to help law enforcement agencies with the search and recovery of at-risk abducted children, and maintaining up-to-date knowledge and expertise of the best methods and technologies to recover missing children.
Senate Public Safety Committee

**AB 1655 (Evans, D-Santa Rosa) – expands the authority of a juvenile court judicial officer to make orders regarding the administration of psychotropic medications to include a dependent child or ward who has been removed from the physical custody of a parent or guardian.
Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee

*AB 1844 (Fletcher, R-San Diego) – known as Chelsea’s Law, this bill would provide increased potential punishments for sexual crimes when the victim is under 14 years old.
Passed Assembly 71-0; in Senate

**AB 1878 (Lieu, D-El Segundo) – would include sexual orientation, domestic-partnership status, and gender identity on state forms that collect demographic information.
Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee

AB 2015 (Arambula, I-Fresno) – Current law requires the creation of multidisciplinary personnel teams to assist and monitor families who are potential child abusers. By allowing these teams to track potential abusers via computer databases, AB 2085 may ultimately permit the government regular access into families’ lives, even if there has been no abuse.
Assembly Human Services Committee

AB 2199 (Lowenthal, D-Long Beach) – would delete state code sections that require research into the causes and cures of homosexual behavior.
Senate Health Committee June 23

**AB 2208 (Torres, D-Ontario) – criminalizes the use of an Internet social networking site, during parole, for registered sex offenders, if the victim was under 18 years of age or the Internet was used in the commission of the crime. 
Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee

AB 2412 (Tran, R-Costa Mesa) – would designate February 6 of each year as Ronald Reagan Day, and would encourage public schools and educational institutions to engage in exercises remembering the life of Ronald Reagan.
Senate Education Committee June 23, 2010

AB 2426 (Bradford, D-Inglewood) – would define and regulate “surrogacy facilitators,” and require non-attorney surrogacy facilitators to direct clients to deposit client faith funds into an independent, bonded escrow account or a trust account maintained by an attorney.
Senate Judiciary Committee June 10, 2010

AB 2444 (Furutani, D-Long Beach) – would require that – if a district that has an enrolled student, per a transfer agreement between two districts – the student may remain in the outside district without having to annually re-obtain waiver approval.
Senate Education Committee June 23, 2010

AB 2700 – (Ma, D-San Francisco) enables domestic partners who have married each other to dissolve both their marriage and their partnership in a single proceeding.
Senate Judiciary Committee

**AB 2735 – (DeLeon, D-Los Angeles) provides that ownership transfer from one co-tenant to the other on the death of one partner does not constitute a change of ownership for property tax assessment purposes. OPPOSE 
Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee

**held in Appropriations; “dead” for the year.