______________________________
Editor:
There’s been shameless black propaganda about a supposed “war on gays” in Russia. The following is from a Russian state news outlet. Read it and find out the truth. It’s not what Jen Psaki alleges, is it? The truth, as always, is nuanced, and not cut n’ dried.
Orthodox people… Dreher and Whiteford do NOT speak for the Church (neither do I, but I never made any such claim, as they do, repeatedly)…
BMD
******
Last month, a California attorney, for the small fee of 200 USD (11,860 Roubles. 1,242 Renminbi. 12,464 INR. 252 CAD. 258 AUD. 185 Euros. 134 UK Pounds), proposed a ballot measure to violently kill all gays and lesbians, a proposition nearly everyone assumed would be promptly put to bed. However, because of a state law, the ISIL-like proposition will almost certainly continue to the next legislative phase. The rather offensive “Sodomite Suppression Act” proposed by Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin would allow heterosexuals to kill gays and lesbians by “bullets to the head,” or “any other convenient method”. In other words, it’s a bill that permits… rather, encourages… the public to murder human beings. Although the California legislature’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus requested that the State Bar investigate McLaughlin’s ability to practise law, and a petition signed by thousands asked State Bar President Craig Holden to revoke McLaughlin’s license, the California legislature has no choice but to advance the bill to the signature-gathering stage.
Under California law, the state attorney general… currently, Kamala Harris… has to write a title and summary for the proposal, but has no authority to scrap proposals, regardless of how ridiculous they are. The law was designed so that the Attorney General wouldn’t be able to let their own politics influence which proposals pass through. Sacramento Media consultant Carol Dahmen, who started the petition to disbar McLaughlin, wanted to draw attention to the need to reform the initiative system, which was initially created so that political activists could submit petitions to support causes they believe to be noteworthy. Dahmen went as far as to say, “[McLaughlin] is poster boy of what is still wrong with the initiative process. It’s an interesting discussion about free speech, and I get that, but this is a lawyer, and he’s advocating for murder”. McLaughlin’s next step is to gather 365,880 signatures to advance his proposal to the next ballot… something no one believes will happen.
Political and election attorney Tom Hiltachk wrote in an e-mail to the Sacramento Bee, “While you might say that this initiative is ‘clearly’ illegal (and I’d agree), the notion of what is or is not ‘clearly’ illegal is not always so cut-and-dried. If you give the (Attorney General) discretion, there may be cases in which she refused to issue a title and summary asserting that the measure was ‘clearly’ illegal. While in this case, it seems foolish and perhaps unwise to issue a title and summary, the better approach is the current approach, prohibiting discretion, so that ‘close cases’ are not inappropriately derailed by a recalcitrant AG”.
UC Davis law professor and former criminal defence attorney Vikram Amar presented a similar view, “This one drips of evil, so the instinct is to say ‘Well, there’s got to be a way to avoid wasting everybody’s time’, but in the law we often have limitations that are built not for the easy cases but because we are worried about the hard cases”. Some of the more egregious parts of McLaughlin’s plan include a 1 million USD (59.3 million Roubles. 6.21 million Renminbi. 62.32 million INR. 1.26 million CAD. 1.29 million AUD. 925,000 Euros. 670,000 UK Pounds) fine for transmitting “sodomistic propaganda,” or 10 year imprisonment… or banishment from California for life. The proposed initiative states, “This law is effective immediately and shall not be rendered ineffective nor invalidated by any court, state or federal, until heard by a quorum of the Supreme Court of California consisting only of judges who are neither sodomites nor subject to disqualification hereunder”. There are no obvious proponents of the measure other than McLaughlin himself.
21 March 2015
Sputnik International
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150321/1019809795.html
Voices from Russia 
They Can’t Kill a Horrifying “Kill the Gays” Bill in California
Tags: California, Initiative, LGBT, political commentary, politics, United States, USA
______________________________
Editor:
There’s been shameless black propaganda about a supposed “war on gays” in Russia. The following is from a Russian state news outlet. Read it and find out the truth. It’s not what Jen Psaki alleges, is it? The truth, as always, is nuanced, and not cut n’ dried.
Orthodox people… Dreher and Whiteford do NOT speak for the Church (neither do I, but I never made any such claim, as they do, repeatedly)…
BMD
******
Last month, a California attorney, for the small fee of 200 USD (11,860 Roubles. 1,242 Renminbi. 12,464 INR. 252 CAD. 258 AUD. 185 Euros. 134 UK Pounds), proposed a ballot measure to violently kill all gays and lesbians, a proposition nearly everyone assumed would be promptly put to bed. However, because of a state law, the ISIL-like proposition will almost certainly continue to the next legislative phase. The rather offensive “Sodomite Suppression Act” proposed by Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin would allow heterosexuals to kill gays and lesbians by “bullets to the head,” or “any other convenient method”. In other words, it’s a bill that permits… rather, encourages… the public to murder human beings. Although the California legislature’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus requested that the State Bar investigate McLaughlin’s ability to practise law, and a petition signed by thousands asked State Bar President Craig Holden to revoke McLaughlin’s license, the California legislature has no choice but to advance the bill to the signature-gathering stage.
Under California law, the state attorney general… currently, Kamala Harris… has to write a title and summary for the proposal, but has no authority to scrap proposals, regardless of how ridiculous they are. The law was designed so that the Attorney General wouldn’t be able to let their own politics influence which proposals pass through. Sacramento Media consultant Carol Dahmen, who started the petition to disbar McLaughlin, wanted to draw attention to the need to reform the initiative system, which was initially created so that political activists could submit petitions to support causes they believe to be noteworthy. Dahmen went as far as to say, “[McLaughlin] is poster boy of what is still wrong with the initiative process. It’s an interesting discussion about free speech, and I get that, but this is a lawyer, and he’s advocating for murder”. McLaughlin’s next step is to gather 365,880 signatures to advance his proposal to the next ballot… something no one believes will happen.
Political and election attorney Tom Hiltachk wrote in an e-mail to the Sacramento Bee, “While you might say that this initiative is ‘clearly’ illegal (and I’d agree), the notion of what is or is not ‘clearly’ illegal is not always so cut-and-dried. If you give the (Attorney General) discretion, there may be cases in which she refused to issue a title and summary asserting that the measure was ‘clearly’ illegal. While in this case, it seems foolish and perhaps unwise to issue a title and summary, the better approach is the current approach, prohibiting discretion, so that ‘close cases’ are not inappropriately derailed by a recalcitrant AG”.
UC Davis law professor and former criminal defence attorney Vikram Amar presented a similar view, “This one drips of evil, so the instinct is to say ‘Well, there’s got to be a way to avoid wasting everybody’s time’, but in the law we often have limitations that are built not for the easy cases but because we are worried about the hard cases”. Some of the more egregious parts of McLaughlin’s plan include a 1 million USD (59.3 million Roubles. 6.21 million Renminbi. 62.32 million INR. 1.26 million CAD. 1.29 million AUD. 925,000 Euros. 670,000 UK Pounds) fine for transmitting “sodomistic propaganda,” or 10 year imprisonment… or banishment from California for life. The proposed initiative states, “This law is effective immediately and shall not be rendered ineffective nor invalidated by any court, state or federal, until heard by a quorum of the Supreme Court of California consisting only of judges who are neither sodomites nor subject to disqualification hereunder”. There are no obvious proponents of the measure other than McLaughlin himself.
21 March 2015
Sputnik International
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150321/1019809795.html