Legislative Alert- September 2007
Posted on September 24, 2007
Filed Under Non Profit, lgbT |
The State Legislature passed a number of important bills. It is now up to the Governor to sign or veto these bills. Your help is needed on the measures listed below . Please act now!!
Please call, fax, or write Governor Schwarzenegger as soon as possible requesting that he sign these measures into law!
The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor of California
State Capitol
Sacramento CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
Civil Rights
AB 43 (Leno) Allows same-sex marriages by enacting the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act to provide that marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between two persons (rather than between a man and a woman).
AB 295 (Lieu) Requires any state agency, board or commission to report demographic data collected according to additional specified Asian and Pacific Islander groups.
AB 394 (Levine) Provides for a non-discriminatory learning environment in public schools by providing local educational agencies and the Department of Education the necessary clarification and resources to ensure compliance with the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000.
SB 777 (Kuehl) Adds sexual orientation to the list of prohibited bases of discrimination and bias in public schools, including instructional materials.
Employment
AB 435 (Brownley) Increases the time to bring an action to recover wages in gender-based wage discrimination cases.
AB 537 (Swanson) Adds siblings, grandparents, grandchildren and parents-in-law to the list of family members in the California Family Rights Act for whom workers can take unpaid time off to provide care and be guaranteed that they can return to work after their leave.
SB 727 (Kuehl) Adds siblings, grandparents, grandchildren and parents-in-law to the list of family members in the California Paid Family Leave Law for whom workers can take time off to provide care and receive partial wage replacement benefits .
SB 836 (Kuehl) Prohibits discrimination against workers merely because they have caregiving responsibilities for a child or other family member.
Family Law
AB 102 (Ma) Requires the Declaration of Domestic Partnership form and marriage licenses to have an optional section for either or both parties to a marriage or domestic partnership to change their surnames.
Reproductive Health
AB 629 (Brownley) Enacts the Sexual Health Education Accountability Act to extend the protections currently provided in public schools to community health education programs by requiring any state-funded community-based sex education program to be medically accurate, age-appropriate, unbiased, comprehensive and culturally and linguistically appropriate.
Violence
AB 335 (De Leon) In establishing eligibility for homeless assistance, allows domestic violence to be verified by a sworn statement of the victim (rather than requiring verification by a third party health and human services agency) where homelessness is a direct result of domestic violence.
Welfare
AB 314 (Soto) Requires counties to count structured, monitored study time related to educational activities as part of CalWORKs work participation requirements.
AB 508 (Swanson) Repeals the lifetime disqualification from food stamps for persons convicted of drug-related felonies.
Prison
AB 76 (Lieber) Requires a gender-focused plan to better provide care and custody of women inmates under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, including the creation of a Female Offender Reform Master Plan.
AB 1539 (Krekorian) Provides more effective procedures for prisoners who qualify for California’s medical release law which allows early release of terminally ill prisoners who are not a threat to public safety.
SB 518 (Migden) Enacts a Youth Bill of Rights for incarcerated juveniles and imposes specific requirements on the Division of Juvenile Justice and local juvenile correctional facilities related to the rights of incarcerated youth.
For more information on these bills or any other state legislation, go to www.leginfo.ca.gov and click on “bill information.”
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