Terrible California 'Kill-Gays' Initiative Officially Deemed Terrible

Until the evening of June 23, California lawmakers were actually being asked to address something called the Sodomite Suppression Act, which advocated for the killing “by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method” of anyone who participated in any kind of gay sex. But, as we don’t live in an ultra-conservative torture cult, the initiative was just deemed unconstitutional.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Raymond Cadei was responsible for throwing out the measure after Attorney General Kamala Harris essentially asked the court to allow her to ignore it. The Associated Press reports:

Harris had asked for a judge’s permission in March to reject the initiative through a legal complaint against its sponsor, Orange County lawyer Matthew McLaughlin. After McLaughlin did not attempt to defend the measure in court, the attorney general last week sought a default ruling in her favor, a request Cadei granted…

McLaughlin did not immediately reply to a telephone call seeking comment on Tuesday. He has not commented publicly on his motivations for pursuing the initiative since he paid $200 to submit it for processing.

If Cadei hadn’t thrown out the measure, it was still unlikely that it would have even made it onto the November 2016 ballot: McLaughlin would have had to collect over 365,000 signatures in just 180 days to qualify.

“This proposed act is the product of bigotry, seeks to promote violence, is patently unconstitutional and has no place in a civil society,” said Harris in a statement. “I applaud the court’s decision to block its title and summary.”