By Jessica Testa
The California legislature passed a bill Thursday that would make the state the first in the US to widely recognize a third, nonbinary gender.
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The Hill: California legislature passes bill requiring presidential candidates to release tax return
Senator Scott Wiener (D), another author of the bill, said the bill is about “giving the American people the honesty and transparency they deserve.”
“As the months continue to go by in the disastrous Trump Administration and the investigations and conflicts of interest pile up, it becomes more and more clear how critical basic transparency is in how we elect our president,” he said in a statement.
By Heather Knight
When he was a San Francisco supervisor, Sen. Scott Wiener got a lot of flak from progressives for being the buttoned-up, boring moderate who mandated that the city’s naked people cover their genitals.
“President Trump sent a shockwave through the immigrant community and this country by pardoning a convicted criminal who illegally profiled and jailed people based solely on suspicions about their immigration status,” he said. “Today, the California Senate sent a message to our immigrant neighbors that unlike this President, we stand with you in working to keep our communities safe. Making immigrants fearful that testifying in court may get you deported isn’t how we ensure justice and public safety. California’s courts are houses of justice, not ad hoc detention centers where ICE agents can round up law-abiding immigrants.”
It’s time to give local governments more control over when, where and how alcohol is served. A city like Los Angeles, for instance, shouldn’t have to shut down its bars early each night in deference to a fusty, 80-year-old law. Letting responsible establishments in appropriate neighborhoods stay open later would help create a fun, bustling, vibrant, big-city atmosphere attractive to younger people and tourists — while also generating tax revenue, creating jobs and increasing the earnings of small businesses.
“This isn’t just a threat to San Francisco,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. “Sometimes housing gets portrayed as a San Francisco/Bay Area problem. This is a contagion that is moving around the state and spreading like wildfire. Parts of California that have always been considered affordable aren’t anymore.”
Thanks to these efforts, legislators in California are now poised to modernize that state’s HIV criminalization law. In February, State Senator Scott Wiener introduced legislation that would repeal the felony provisions and make deliberate intent to expose — which very rarely happens, according to most public health and policy experts — a simple misdemeanor.
This year’s Senate Bill 35, by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would streamline the approvals process for new construction by limiting local officials’ authority — but only when they are failing to meet established housing goals.
Many California communities could open centers inviting addicts to shoot up hard drugs under a bill that has cleared the state Assembly and now awaits a vote on the Senate floor.