California lawmakers recently passed a new law that will lighten sentences for transgender people and other members of the LGBT community who have “consensual” sexual relations with minors within ten years of their age.
The bill passed by sweeping margins in both the California House and Senate and is now off to California’s Governor Gavin Newsom for a signature, Faithwire reports.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, The bill makes being registered as a sex offender for engaging in voluntary sex with minors between the ages of 14 and 17, optional, depending instead on the discretion of the judge, whereas before it was mandatory.
Existing California laws regarding pedophilia also assert that anal or oral sex with a voluntary minor is not necessarily grounds for being registered as a sex offender.
The rationale came from a California Supreme Court decision which said it would be “stigmatizing” for a father to do his job or support his child if he was labeled a sex offender for having anal or oral sex with minors.
California Senator Scott Wiener also argued that the legislation “eliminates discrimination against LGBTQ youth in our criminal justice system.”
According to current law, since anal or oral sex cannot lead to pregnancy, it is different from vaginal sex and therefore, offenses of either of those natures are considered “optional” information…
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