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Six Pro-Gay, Slate of Positive AIDS Bills Move Forward

Despite the despair over the failure of AB 222, the "Dignity for All Students" bill, gay and AIDS activists had some historic victories during the spring session of the California state Legislature. This includes the approval of bills to establish a statewide domestic partnership registry and a bill to create a system to better track HIV infection while protecting patient confidentiality.

"[If]1849 was the year of the famous gold rush in California, it now looks like future generations may look back on this year as the year of the Lavender Rush of 1999," the advocacy group Lambda Letters said of the spring session. "The election of Gray Davis as governor and the retention of Democratic majorities in both houses of the state Legislature have presented the LGBT community with a never better opportunity to make huge advances in civil rights and the protection of our community health."

But, as the experience with AB 222 shows, Democratic majorities alone don't ensure success, particularly when vulnerable Democrats are subjected to a full-fledged anti-gay assault by religious conservatives. With the bills passed by the Assembly now bound for the Senate and vice versa, the Religious Right isn't going to be content with a single victory.

"AB 222 was not the battle. AB 222 was a skirmish," Bob Pamplin, director of Inland Valley Citizens for Community Values, told the Inland Daily Bulletin. "The battle is the homosexual agenda. It would be a hollow victory if this is all we win."

And considering the thinness of the margins on the bills that did pass, the gay community cannot afford to be complacent about this war. Three of the four bills passed by the 80-member Assembly garnered 42 votes or less. In the 40- member Senate, one bill passed by a single vote while the other bill passed by three votes.

About a dozen legislators were the focus of a concentrated campaign by the Religious Right that included newspaper ads, radio spots and mailers. According to Laurie McBride, Antonio Villaraigosa's liaison to the gay community, every Latino and Asian-American Asemblymember was targeted as were most African-American members. Only one targeted member, George Nakano of Torrance, voted for all five bills. "He stands as a hero," McBride said.

The only one of the bills to pass comfortably in the Assembly, on a 56-19 vote, was Wally Knox's (D-Los Angeles) AB 208, which would add a life-imprisonment enhancement for hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation. AB 26, Carole Migden's (D-San Francisco) bill to require health insurers to offer domestic partners coverage and create a statewide partners registry, squeaked by 41-38; Knox's bill to allow domestic partners benefits under the Public Employees Retirement System, AB 107, passed 42-38; and AB 1001, a bill by Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, to add sexual orientation as a protected class under the Fair Employment and Housing Act, passed 42-36.

Two Democrats, Dean Florez of Bakersfield and Sarah Reyes of Fresno, voted against all five bills. Democrats Carl Washington of Compton, Sally Havice of Bellflower and Dennis Cardoza of Turlock only voted for the hate crimes bill. Other than on AB 208, the only GOP vote on a gay rights bill in the Assembly came from Jim Cunneen of Silicon Valley, who voted for AB 107.

"Given that the Assembly has 47 Democrats, we must take a hard look at the inability to muster more than 42 votes for any of the other bills," said McBride. "Green Party member [Audie Elizabeth] Bock [of Oakland] voted for each of those bills, so AB 26 might not have passed without her."

In the state Senate, two Democrats failed to support either of the gay rights bills that came up in that body. Joe Baca of San Bernadino voted against both SB 75, which would have established a statewide domestic partnership registry, and SB 118, which would have extended family leave laws to include domestic partners. Jim Costa of Fresno voted against SB 118 and abstained from voting on SB 75.

SB 75, written by Kevin Murray of Los Angeles, would also provide hospital visitation, conservatorship and inheritance rights for domestic partners. It passed 23-14. SB 118, written by Tom Hayden of Santa Monica, passed 21-13. Democrats Adam Schiff of Burbank and John Vasconcellos of San Jose did not vote on SB 118.

There was far more consensus when it came to AIDS-related bills. Migden's AB 103, for instance, which would establish a unique identifier system for tracking AIDS in California, was approved 61-18 by the Assembly. A competing measure to require mandatory names reporting, offered by Republican Sen. Robert Haynes, didn't make it out of committee.

Other AIDS-related legislation approved included:

AB 155, Migden's bill to allow disabled Medi-Cal recipients who return to work to remain eligible for Medi-Cal; AB 217, Scott Wilder's, D-Los Angeles, bill to require Medi-Cal to include all FDA-approved treatments for HIV infection on their formularies; AB 518, a bill to authorize cities and counties to start clean-needle exchange projects; AB 1047, Marco Firebaugh's, D-Los Angeles, bill to require that the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program include all FDA-approved AIDS treatments; SB 847 and SB 848, by Vasconcellos, which would require the state to conduct a study on and develop a plan for the safe distribution of medical marijuana; and SB 1258, by Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, which would require California to seek federal approval to provide Medi-Cal coverage to people who are HIV positive but who do not have AIDS.

--Tracy Sypert