California reduces penalties for pedophilia with ‘willing’ kids

By Art Moore

California state Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener (State Senate website)

California lawmakers have sent a bill to the desk of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that would reduce penalties for adults who have oral or anal sex with a “willing” minor child if the offender is no more than 10 years older than the victim.

The objective is to end “blatant discrimination against young LGBT people engaged in consensual activity,” according to its sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is openly gay.

SB 145, passed by the state Senate on Monday, would allow a judge to decide whether or not the offender should be registered as a sex offender, Breitbart News reported.

Wiener claims the bill “is about treating everyone equally under the law.”

“Discrimination against LGBT people is simply not the California way,” he said, according to the San Francisco Examiner. “These laws were put in place during a more conservative and anti-LGBT time in California’s history. They have ruined people’s lives and made it harder for them to get jobs, secure housing and live productive lives. It is time we update these laws and treat everyone equally.”

Under current law, judges can decide whether or not adults who have “penile-vaginal intercourse” with minors close to their age must register as a sex offender.

Wiener contends, the Examiner reported, the law targets LGBT individuals, because they do not engage in penile-vaginal intercourse.

“This is such horrific homophobia,” he said. “It’s irrational, and it ruins people’s lives.”

Turn down the sound

Before talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh discussed the bill on his nationally syndicated show Thursday, he had to warn listeners to turn down the volume if there were any children nearby.

After describing the bill in detail, he addressed the problem with regarding children as “willing” participants.

“How do you get permission from an 8-year-old? How do you get permission from a 10-year-old? How is permission from a 10- or 12-year-old even valid?” he asked.

He predicted that “once this gets signed into law, that 10 years is gonna become 15 down the road, because, see, the way left operates, nothing is ever solved when they do legislation.”

“It’s just the beginning of the descent into even worse circumstance,” he said.

Limbaugh argued the bill has implications for the presidential election, because “this is who we’re up against.”

“This is just one state where it will spread beyond the borders and boundaries of California at some point if it’s not stopped,” he said.

‘Massive misinformation’

Wiener charged on Twitter that the bill “is the subject of a massive misinformation campaign by MAGA/QAnon,” referring to Trump supporters and followers of QAnon, the online movement focused on “deep-state” conspiracies against the president.

The California Democrat urged his followers on Twitter to read an Associated Press “fact check” story about his legislation with the headline “Bill Would Not Legalize Pedophilia in California.”

Wiener has orginated numerous LGBT-rights bills.

Then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 239 in 2017, which lowered the penalty of exposing someone to HIV without their knowledge and consent from a felony to a misdemeanor. Wiener contended state laws had unfairly singled out HIV-positive people.

He co-authored SB 179, passed in 2018, which created a third, non-binary gender option on government documents.

SB 219 in 2017 created rights for LGBT seniors living in long-term care facilities. Critics argued the bill criminalized designating bathrooms as male and female, and  forced care providers to use “gender appropriate” language.

In 2019 and 2020, Wiener attempted to pass a bill that would have restricted physicians’ and parents’ ability to decide to perform reconstructive genital surgery on intersex infants.  Instead, it would have required waiting until the child is old enough to decide whether or not to undergo surgery.

Art Moore

Art Moore, co-author of the best-selling book "See Something, Say Nothing," entered the media world as a PR assistant for the Seattle Mariners and a correspondent covering pro and college sports for Associated Press Radio. He reported for a Chicago-area daily newspaper and was senior news writer for Christianity Today magazine and an editor for Worldwide Newsroom before joining WND shortly after 9/11. He earned a master's degree in communications from Wheaton College. Read more of Art Moore's articles here.


Leave a Comment