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Calif. Law: Doctors Must Cure Gays

 


BONNIE LOWENTHAL X390

A California assembly member has written an article for the Los Angeles Times about an outdated law on the book in the state requiring health experts to find a cure for homosexuality.

Bonnie Lowenthal writes, “This 60-year-old relic was not some gay-baiting prelude to the McCarthy era. It came, rather, in response to public outcry over sex crimes in California, specifically the molestation-murder of a 6-year-old Los Angeles girl. The murderer was not a gay man. There was no connection between the crime and homosexuality at all.

“Even so, before the dust had settled, well-meaning California legislators passed a law that not only required health officials to seek "the causes and cures of homosexuality" but likened people who are gay to child molesters. Amazingly, it's still on the books.”

Lowenthal is the author of Assembly Bill 2199, which seeks to repeal the dated law and faces its first hearing Tuesday before the public safety committee.

Read the full article.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Elle
    Date posted: 4/7/2010 1:18:18 AM
    Hometown: Brooklyn

    Comment:

    Yeah, right. And after we get "cured" will you let us date YOUR sons and daughters?

  • Name: Tod
    Date posted: 4/6/2010 3:34:34 AM
    Hometown: West Hollywood

    Comment:

    That's right, it was a very old law that has never been enforced. Now, she is just finally doing it in, which is good.

  • Name: Mark
    Date posted: 4/5/2010 6:59:42 PM
    Hometown: Elizabeth, Colorado

    Comment:

    So then I wonder if my HMO cover my homosexuality as an illness? If this is the case, gosh then I should get full-time disability insurance coverage.

  • Name: Zechariah Ramirez
    Date posted: 4/5/2010 2:19:35 PM
    Hometown: Montclair

    Comment:

    Let's find out what some religious extreme people will say. http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/isnt-time-the-law-requiring-doctors-to-find-a-cure-for-homosexuality-be-repealed/question-949306/

  • Name: Rob
    Date posted: 4/5/2010 1:43:09 PM
    Hometown: Phoenix

    Comment:

    Shane, This law cannot be compared to "singing in a swimsuit" and "rifles in churches." Get rid of it. It was an insult to LGBTs 60 years ago and it still is. It has been almost 40 years since the APA declassified homosexuality as a mental illness.

  • Name: Lee
    Date posted: 4/5/2010 1:02:16 PM
    Hometown: NYC

    Comment:

    Currently, Mayor Bloomberg is pulling up old outdated statutes to gouge money out of it's citizens. For example: There is an old law on the books (from the 1900's) stating that milk box (that holds several containers of milk, can only be used for milk. If a person is found using said Milk box for any other reason, they can get fined. 2 yrs ago, a elderly man was sitting on a Milk box outside his store, he was given a $50 fine for sitting on that milk carton and the summons stated the old antiquated law as the reason.

  • Name: Shane
    Date posted: 4/5/2010 11:24:10 AM
    Hometown: Anytown

    Comment:

    Im sure my comment will anger a few however; this all looks like someone wants to see their name in the paper. There are lots of stupid laws on the books in many states. For example: in Ohio it is illegal for more than five women to live in a house and in Florida it is illegal to sing in a public place while attired in a swimsuit and just one more for you, in Maine shotguns are required to be taken to church in the event of a Native American attack. There are hundreds of old laws on the books that most are completely unaware of and are just not enforced. Again I do not agree with that law and of course it is not being enforced. Do you see lots of people rushing to repeal the no singing in swimsuits in Florida? Its all about getting her name out there and thats all...

  • Name: Donna
    Date posted: 4/5/2010 10:12:16 AM
    Hometown: Wyandotte County

    Comment:

    It's no surprise that the lawmakers took the knee jerk reaction they did. In the 80s, when the McMartin Preschool mess started, I was fired from my teaching job in Kansas because the lawmakers made a hasty law that said a person who had had a child removed from their home for any reason could not work with children. Well, my son had gotten into trouble, violated his probation, and I turned him in for that. His consequence, a return to juvenile custody, lost me my job. It took a year and the assistance of the ACLU to get Kansas to admit their law was too broad and so they hastily wrote a law that said they couldn't be sued for damages caused by their previous law and then changed it. I got my name cleared, returned to teaching, and my son learned his lesson about responsibility. I hope this idiot law goes away, too, and I hope all the people whom it harmed can get redress, more than I did.

  • Name: Paschal
    Date posted: 4/5/2010 8:54:10 AM
    Hometown: Sligo, Ireland

    Comment:

    Stupid old laws like this are not very rare. I live in Ireland and 86% of the population is Roman Catholic yet the law still bans Roman Catholics from going to school. But of course it hasn't benn enforced for a very long time.

  • Name: Jake Orlando
    Date posted: 4/5/2010 1:55:08 AM
    Hometown: Long Beach

    Comment:

    That's my Assemblymember! Long Beach loves its Lowenthals. I'm represented by three. Anyway, this issue is almost "unreportable". It should go under odd news. Laws like these routinely show up in the media about California, and they're routinely repealed. I would venture do say that if Governor Schwarzenegger didn't sign this bill, then millions of pissed gay men and women would storm the Capitol.



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