Nov. election - Cal Prop 83

NEWS

Gay groups oppose Prop. 83

http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=1199


by Zak Szymanski

[z. szymanski [at] ebar .com]


Bay Area Reporter
Vol. 36 / No. 39
28 September 2006
Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
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With the constant drone of poorly-acted political commercials and automated dinner-time phone calls,
it can be easy to shut it all out until November 7 has passed and another election day is finally over.

But disengagement can be costly, say the LGBT voices that increasingly are emerging to take a stand against Proposition 83, the perhaps well-intentioned but allegedly poorly executed sex offender measure known as "Jessica's Law" on California's upcoming ballot.

"No one wants to be accused of being 'soft' on sexual offenders,"
said gay labor activist Howard Wallace.
"But that's all the more reason to take the correct position when it's not easy to take. The opposition already twists our positions, but if we allow that to silence us on controversial issues, then we may as well give up as a movement."

At issue, said Wallace and other Proposition 83 opponents, is not the measure's harsh penalties for the worst of offenders, but most of the rest of the initiative's text, which simply relocates sex offenders to other parts of the state; implements a costly, ineffective tracking system that could drive violent offenders underground; and has potential consequences for nonviolent offenders and people convicted for consensual acts.

"There are ambiguities that will immediately send [the measure] to a court of law," said Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who noted that Proposition 83 proponents first attempted to pass the measure as legislation last year, and in Leno's public safety committee hearing, "we revealed many of the drafting errors and weaknesses in it."
Seeing certain legislative defeat, Republicans soon began collecting signatures to place their bill on the ballot as written, even though "some of the components had already died in the legislature," said Leno.


Proposition 83 organizers, known as the Campaign for Child Safety, did not return phone calls to the
Bay Area Reporter by press time, but they do seem to acknowledge their measure's imperfections and complications.
"Proposition 83, the Sexually Violent Predators Initiative, should be passed by voters despite its complexity, flaws, and expense to implement," reads an editorial from the September 26 Bakersfield Californian that is posted prominently on
http://www.83yes.com.


Leno cited two major problems with the measure, including the requirement that registered sex offenders – currently an estimated 90,000 people in California – wear tracking devices that are subject to resource-draining "false alarms" triggered anytime the signal is lost in a tunnel or subway. With an estimated "half a billion dollars to implement this measure, and no new money attached to the measure, that funding is going to come from education, healthcare, and social services," he said.
"Now law enforcement doesn't know where they are," said Leno.


Proposition 83 also has a provision that "those same 90,000 people" cannot live within 2,000 feet of a school or a park. Keeping in mind that such restrictions apply to people who have no offensesagainst children,
Leno said, "Their idea of addressing a problem is to push it from one part of the state to another."


Some Proposition 83 proponents have said that the measure will affect only future registrants, "but they didn't put a date in the bill," said Leno. "And in fact if that intent is recognized, then what they are saying is,
'Ninety thousand people can live within 2,000 feet of a park or school and we don't care.' So which is it?"

Current law already prohibits all people who have offended against children from living within 1,300 feet
of a school, said Leno, who added the newer proposed residency restriction would thus imply that
"there must be an epidemic of offenses committed by those who live between 1,300 and 2,000 feet of schools. But there's no proof of that."
Newspapers several months ago reported that in Iowa, after residency requirements for sex offenders were adopted, fewer sex offenders were registering with the state.


Rather than simply be an obstacle to laws that he opposes,
Leno said he authored AB50 as a response and alternative to Jessica's Law;
that would have targeted trespassing violations rather than residency requirements,
because "it's not where you live that determines the risk of committing offenses, it's where you hang out."
As AB50 moved through the legislature, "that's when things got dramatic," he said.
"Because I dared to suggest there was a better way to approach this issue
than what my Republican colleagues were supporting,
I was labeled a 'danger to society,' 'pure evil,' and 'child molesters' best friend.' "
AB50 bill did not proceed as written and eventually was amended to address other issues.


Most troublesome to Wallace is how Proposition 83 can affect nonviolent offenders.
The proposal prohibits probation, for instance, for sex offenses including lewd or lascivious acts, the charges that often accompany consensual public acts. It could also have the effect, said opponents, of lifetime monitoring for young people convicted of sexual involvement with their similarly-aged girlfriends and boyfriends.
"It extends additional punishments to people who are nonviolent offenders and dogs them for life, even if we're talking about consensual acts where there was no victim. It brings up age of consent issues; a 19-year-old boy who has sexual relations with his 17-year-old girlfriend could be subjected to lifetime monitoring. If young people are involved with each other and the love affair breaks up and relatives get involved with a conflict,
it can be blown into something that could affect people for the rest of their lives.
It's especially easy to imagine that in a gay person's case," said Wallace.

Additionally, lewd conduct is often charged after high-profile "bathroom busts" in public parks,
many of which are police stings that result in false arrests and convictions, said Wallace.
"In some of those cases, if someone else is in there doing something and you happen to walk out of there, the cops think, 'Let's grab them all.' It's a real possibility in a whole lot of places," said Wallace, who added that putting additional penalties on people who have served their time
raises questions for him about how safe that actually makes society. [..........]


The Harvey Milk and Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic clubs have opposed Proposition 83,
noted Wallace, as has the San Francisco Labor Council.
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee was scheduled to revisit its neutral position
at a meeting on Wednesday, September 27.
[ Note: ACLU also opposes Prop 83.]

Regardless of its potential pitfalls, Proposition 83 still has overwhelming support
and polls show more than 70 percent of California voters in favor of it.
Its opponents said it's often difficult for people to speak out against ideas that are so highly politicized,
even if the proposals fail to solve the problem.

"It's the new McCarthyism. The fear that these fear-mongers are selling is, 'if you dare have a different perspective on this issue and how to approach it, we will denigrate you and attempt to destroy your reputation,'" said Leno. "But it's critically important that we always speak the truth and speak from our hearts. We should not be deterred from doing so out of fear;
that's never played well for us."
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Copyright © 2006, Bay Area Reporter,
a division of Benro Enterprises, Inc.

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Bay Area Reporter

Issue:  Vol. 36 / No. 39 / 28 September 2006
Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
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