In one of the most bizarre “Is this really 2015” moments of the year so far, a man has managed to wrangle the “Sodomite Suppression Act” onto the ballot in California. And it’s not so much that there are still fervent anti-gay people out there; it’s the language of this specific amendment that has folks in a tizzy. The Sodomite Suppression Act empowers people to shoot in the head–with bullets–anyone suspected of participating in acts of sodomy.
You can read full text of the notion right here. If you want just a rundown, know that it refers to sodomy as “buggery,” calls it “an abominable crime against nature,” and commands that “any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.”
It also calls for a $1 million fine against anyone found guilty of distributing or participating in “sodomistic propaganda.” The language of the bill does not make clear whether that fine is supposed to be levied before the guilty parties are shot in the head, or after.
In order to make a ballot proposal legally binding–meaning the Attorney General has to grant an official title and summary for the proposal, so its proponents can begin collecting signatures–all California law requires is the complete text of the initiative, and a check for $200. So Huntington Beach attorney Matthew McLaughlin, the man responsible for the bill, managed the that step rather easily.
Now, California Attorney General Kamala Harris has asked a judge to simply throw the measure out, since, without such “relief, [her] office will be forced to issue a title and summary for a proposal that seeks to legalize discrimination and vigilantism.” Both of which, in case you forgot, are unconstitutional in the first place.
Should the AG be forced to grant title and summary, the bill’s sponsors would have 180 days to collect 365,000 valid signatures in order to actually get the measure on the ballot. Most observersgive that no chance of happening.
(Photo credits: WENN; Rainbow via Flickr)
