California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday signed a bill repealing an obscure, 1950s-era legal code requiring the State Department of Mental Health to investigate a cure for homosexuality.
Equality California, a statewide LGBT advocacy organization, lobbied for the bill’s passage. Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) and Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), who is gay, sponsored the bill, AB 2199, in the legislature.
Section 8050 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code had instructed the State Department of Mental Health to conduct “scientific research into the causes and cures of sexual deviation, including deviations conducive to sex crimes against children, and the causes and cures of homosexuality, and into methods of identifying potential sex offenders.”
The bill Schwarzenegger signed today amends the code to require “the department to plan, conduct, and cause to be conducted scientific research into sex crimes against children and into methods of identifying those who commit sexual offenses.”
Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, praised the governor for terminating the “deeply offensive and blatantly false language from state law.” He also commended the passage of another bill, AB 2700, which allows same-sex couples to dissolve their domestic partnership and civil marriage simultaneously with a single form.
“As the most populous state in the nation, California sends a palpable message with these new pieces of legislation with respect to LGBT equality. These two bills bring us closer to accomplishing our mission to achieve full equality for all LGBT Californians,” Kors said.
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