(CBS) – California Governor. Gavin Newsom recently signed a law that would give judges a say on whether to list someone as a sex offender for having oral or anal sex with a minor.
The bill would expand the discretion currently granted judges in statutory rape cases and was promoted as bringing fairness under the law to LGBTQ defendants. The current law, in place for decades, permits judges to decide whether a man should be placed on California’s sex offender registry if he had voluntary intercourse with someone 14 to 17 years old and was no more than 10 years older than the person.
But that discretion only applied to a man who had vaginal intercourse. The new change permits judges to use that same discretion when the case involves voluntary oral or anal sex. The measure won’t apply when a minor is under 14, when the age gap is larger than 10 years, or when either party says the sex wasn’t consensual.
The bill was introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat. The law ends discrimination “by treating LGBTQ young people the exact same way that straight young people have been treated since 1944,” Wiener said in a statement, adding: “Today, California took yet another step toward an equitable society.” READ MORE
