A proposal for a ballot initiative in California to kill all gay people in the state is an act of terrorism and should be investigated and prosecuted as such.
The proposal was made by Matt McLaughlin, a “Christian” attorney. Had the exact same proposal been made by a Muslim, the FBI would have been all over this investigating links to terrorism.
Because of a quirk in California law, anyone can propose anything, pay a $200 fee and collect enough signatures, and their initiative goes on the ballot. If what McLaughlin calls the Sodomite Suppression Act passes a popular vote, it becomes law.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has finally come out against the proposal. Gee thanks, AG Harris.
The proposal was filed in February, and Harris didn’t ask a Sacramento court for permission to stop the measure until March 20. The day she received the filing fee, she should have made a statement like, “Genocide will not be on our ballot,” and then met with advisers to discuss how to legally keep genocide off the ballot.
Protecting people’s lives should be the number one priority of a state’s attorney general.
A California state assemblyman filed charges against McLaughlin to have him disbarred. Good first step. No attorney who believes in genocide and works to have genocide turned into law should be allowed to practice law in this country. Genocide is one of those things we, as a country, have gone to war to stop. Stopping genocide is not infringing on your religious liberty.
While being critical of Harris for her delay, there’s no question where Harris stands. She’s a solid supporter of the LGBT community and has the support of a large portion of the LGBT community in California in her bid to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate.
Harris seems stuck legally. California must put this proposal on the ballot if less than 366,000 signatures are collected for the initiative.
Now, obviously this law to kill people would be found unconstitutional. Just as California’s Prop 8 that stopped same-sex marriage in the state was found unconstitutional, this initiative, if voted into law, will be thrown out in court.
There’s little reason to believe that once the first court set the initiative aside as unconstitutional, a higher court would hear an appeal. If a higher court did decide to hear it, it would be overturned each step of the way.
That’s not the point.
Genocide — and make no mistake that’s what this is — should never be up for a vote. Voters should not be given the option to commit mass murder. No one in the state should have to expend resources to stop it, other than the money it will take to prosecute McLaughlin on terrorism charges. McLaughlin poses a direct threat to the entire LGBT community as well as anyone perceived to be gay or lesbian, and Harris should have called in the FBI to help investigate immediately.
Harris may be stuck by law having to title and prepare a summary of this heinous initiative by May so McLaughlin may begin collecting signatures. But she should have reached out for innovative solutions sooner.
Here’s one proposed by community activist Charlotte Laws. She calls it the Intolerant Jackass Law:
“Any person, herein known as an “Intolerant Jackass,” who brings forth a ballot measure that suggests the killing of gays and/or lesbians, whether this measure is called the Sodomite Suppression Act or is known by some other name, shall be required to attend sensitivity training for at least three (3) hours per month for twelve (12) consecutive months. In addition, the offender or “Intolerant Jackass” must donate $5000 to a pro-gay or pro-lesbian organization.”
Fortunately, I live in the progressive city of Dallas, not in a state like California that might actually put genocide on the ballot. On the day Indiana’s discrimination bill was signed into law and the week Harris decided to do something to stop the genocide initiative, Dallas police arrested Rich Sheridan for graffiti aimed at the LGBT community and is charging him with a hate crime related to it. The hate crime charge may be proven by threats Sheridan has made against the LGBT community.
Genocide against an entire class of people is a much more serious crime than individual threats made or malicious graffiti. But in Dallas, the police take those individual threats seriously. In California, threats made against more than a million people in the state are not being taken as seriously. The FBI needs to get involved to stop this threat of mass murder.
