Late Breaking News

By Karen Ocamb

Equality California sponsored nine bills this legislative session, all of which passed the Legislature and have been sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his signature. He has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto bills.

Schwarzenegger already signed SB 1441, authored by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, which prohibits all organizations that receive state funding from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Religious conservatives are upset because the law makes no exception for religious organizations or schools and call the law an assault on religious freedom. Kuehl applauded the governor for signing it.

Kuehl has a more uphill battle with another bill, a single-payer health-care bill (supported, but not sponsored by Equality California), which the governor has already announced he would veto and which Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides also opposes. Meanwhile, Kuehl amended her school curriculum bill, taking out the portion that calls for teachers to instruct students in LGBT history. The bill now prohibits teaching any material that shows homosexuality in a negative light.

The session didn’t suffer from lack of drama. Before being sent to the governor, SB 1827, the State Income Tax Equity Act, which would allow registered domestic partners to file joint state income taxes, escalated into a partisan shouting match. “Here we go again. In the time I've been up here, there have been 40 bills in this house to further the homosexual, gay agenda,” said Jay La Suer (R-La Mesa), who described the bill as further “erosion and dilution of morality in this state.”

Openly gay Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) viewed La Suer’s statement as a “personal castigation of me and mine.”

“If he stays with the statement that he supports LGBT equality,” EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors told IN, “there’s no excuse for him not to sign all these bills.”