SACRAMENTO, Calif. (BP)–Already facing a recall election, California Gov. Gray Davis has signed into law a controversial bill protecting “transsexuals” and “cross-dressers” in hiring and employment practices.
Because the bill does not include an exemption for religious businesses, those such as Christian bookstores could be faced with a $150,000 fine if it is proven they discriminated against a transsexual or cross-dressing applicant — for example, a man wearing a dress.
While the bill does have an exemption for religious nonprofit organizations (churches, etc.), it does not include an exemption for non-religious nonprofit organizations, such as the Boy Scouts, according to the Campaign for California Families website.
Davis signed the bill into law Aug. 2, according to the governor’s website.
Randy Thomasson, founder and executive director of the Campaign for California Families, said in a release that Davis has awarded cross-dressers “unprecedented power” to “persecute the Boys Scouts and religious businesses” as well as “the power to financially crush a Bible bookstore.”
“People aren’t going to sacrifice their dearly held values,” Thomasson said. “What small business or nonprofit organization could financially survive a government investigation and a $150,000 penalty? [The bill] is grossly intolerant of religious freedom and the Boy Scouts. This radical bill engages in reverse discrimination and will do real harm to persons of conscience.”
The new law will allow an employer to enforce “reasonable” dress codes, as long as those rules allow the employee “to appear or dress consistently with” his or her “gender identity.” It exempts businesses with fewer than five employees.
By signing the bill Davis has “earned his recall,” Thomasson said.
In other recent news concerning the homosexual issue:
HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION
The California Supreme Court handed homosexuals a victory Aug. 4 when it ruled by a 6-1 vote that both partners in a homosexual relationship could adopt a child.
The practice is often called second-parent adoption and occurs when a birth parent keeps all the legal parental rights while agreeing to have the child adopted by another person, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
SENATE ACTION?
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Constitution subcommittee, announced Aug. 1 that his subcommittee would hold hearings on the definition of marriage in U.S. law. Specifically, Cornyn said the hearings would decide if any action is needed to uphold the “congressional intent” within the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law in 1996.
Many conservatives are pushing for the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment, which would add language to the U.S. Constitution banning all forms of marriage other than those between a man and a woman.
“[T]he founders could not have anticipated that our nation would ever reach the point where marriage would even require such definition,” Cornyn said on the Senate floor, according to a transcript. “… We should not abandon this issue to the purview of courts alone.”
Any day, Massachusetts’ high court is expected to issue its ruling as to whether homosexuals should be allowed to “marry.”
MAG SUPPORTS IT
The editors of the conservative magazine National Review wrote an editorial in their Aug. 11 edition supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
“[C]onservatives retain a healthy resistance to fiddling with our basic political document,” they wrote. “Judges have, unfortunately, displayed no such resistance in recent decades. On an issue where the stakes could hardly be higher, they need to be resisted. A constitutional amendment is the way to resist.”
TRADITONALIST AUSSIE
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has joined President Bush in defending the traditional view of marriage and standing firm against homosexual “marriage.”
“Traditional marriage is one of the bedrock institutions of our society and I don’t want anything to occur that further weakens it,” he said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Marriage, as we understand it in our society, is about children, having children, raising them, providing for the survival of the species.”
‘QUEER EYE’ UPDATE
The homosexual-themed program “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” brought in 6.9 million viewers during its broadcast on NBC July 24, good enough for a second-place showing for the hour and a 39th finish in the week in the Nielsen ratings, according to E! Online News.
The program airs on the cable channel Bravo and has been billed as a cable hit, although it did not finish among cable’s top 50 programs during its first two weeks, USA Today reported.
But NBC is pushing the show. “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno will welcome the reality show’s cast on his show Aug. 14, the same night that another “Queer Eye” program will air on NBC, Reuters reported.
The reality program involves five homosexual men who give a heterosexual man a makeover. Leno will receive a makeover on his show the next night, Aug. 15, according to Reuters.
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