National File The senator who downgraded HIV transmission to misdemeanor is back again
The same California senator whose bill downgraded the knowing transmission of HIV from a felony to a misdemeanor is now leading a which may make LGBT statutory rapists exempt from having to be put on a sex registry.
Senator Scott Wiener, who in 2017 propelled himself to international headlines over his controversial bill which downgraded the knowing transmission of HIV to a misdemeanor, has proposed Senate Bill 145 or “LGBTQ Young People Nondiscrimination in the Sex Offender Registry Act,” which would leave registration of a convicted offender up to the prerogative of the individual judge.
According to Bay Area Reporter:
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is the lead author of the legislation, Senate Bill 145. It would grant judges discretion to decide if a person should have to register as a sex offender if that person is within 10 years of age of a consensual sexual partner between the age of 14 and 17 and engages in oral or anal intercourse with the younger person. Under current law, the person would automatically be added to the state’s sex offender registry.
Yet, in cases where the consensual sex involved vaginal intercourse between an adolescent heterosexual couple, judges have the discretion to decide if listing on the sex offender registry is warranted. EQCA said Friday that it would continue to work with Wiener and other backers of SB 145 to pass it in 2020.
According to Freedom Project, California currently decides on a case-by-case basis by judges whether a rapist, who is within ten years of the age of the victim, should be added on the sexual offenders’ registry.
Democrat Assemblyman Lorena Gonzalez initially blocked the proposal, saying, “No sex between a 24 and 14 year old is consensual.”
Activist group, Equality California, was irate at the bill’s blocking, and the proposal has taken on the form of a Civil Rights issue.