Gay Cure and Treatment Bill Reversal Moves Forward

An antigay California statute requiring health experts to find a cure for homosexuality is on its way to being reversed by the state legislature. The assembly's public safety committee has approved Assembly Bill 2199, introduced by Bonnie Lowenthal (pictured) of Long Beach, which seeks to repeal the decades-old law.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that it seemed the assembly bill would be easy to pass. But it took a while to get the bill out of committee because several assembly members abstained from voting, fearing parts of the law pertaining to sex offenders would wind up being removed from state statutes.

Lowenthal explained that the 1950 measure was one of many intended to address mounting public fear resulting from highly publicized child molestations, including the 1949 rape and murder of 6-year-old Linda Glucoft. Although the Glucoft case did not involve a gay man, the wave of legislation lumped gays in with "sexual deviants" and sought to find answers to "the causes and cures of homosexuality."

Some of the legal language was altered in 1977, but Lowenthal's bill would remove the archaic antigay provision from the books 60 years after it was passed.