Gay Chinese Couple
Same-sex couple Zhang Yi (R) and Hai Bei pose for their wedding photographs at Qianmen street on Valentine's Day in Beijing February 14, 2009. For a number of Beijing's gay and lesbian community, Valentine's Day is not just a day to celebrate loving relationships, but also an ideal time to campaign for same-sex marriages and the acceptance of homosexuality in China. Reuters

A proposal from California lawyer Matt McLaughlin to place in a 2006 ballot initiative shooting of gays in the head is not only divisive but is also a threat to public safety. Instead of setting the motion to have the measure be included in the ballot initiative as mandated by law, California Attorney General Kamala Harris sought permission from a state court on Wednesday to reject it.

Harris said that the proposal “is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society,” reports Time. The AG admits the request is unusual.

She sought a court ruling because under California rules, since the Orange County lawyer paid $200 filing fee, she is mandated by law to give the proposal a green light to collect at least 366,000 votes for it to qualify as a ballot measure in November 2016. The proposal, though, has slim chances of even collecting the 366,000 signatures, legal experts said.

The California Supreme Court has previously ruled that state AGs cannot reject citizen-initiated ballot measures to protect the state from AGs who can be partisan and reject ballot proposals because the proponent comes from a different political party. However, very few such proposals actually make it to the state ballot.

But University of California, Davis law professor Floyd Feeney thinks Harris would not be favoured by the court. He said, “The courts, rightly or wrongly, treat the initiative as sort of the citizen right and they are reluctant to get involved in trying to get rid of it, at least in advance, by using the law to keep something from being presented to the electorate,” quotes Time.

In response to McLaughlin’s proposal, Charlotte Laws, a real estate agent from southern California, filed an initiative titled “Intolerant Jackass Act,” which states that anyone who files an initiative that proposes killing gays and lesbians would be required to attend a sensitivity training and donate $5,000 to a pro-LGBT group, reports SFGate.

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au

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