The California Senate on Monday
approved a bill that repeals a decades-old gay “cure” mandate
from state code, the AP reported.
The law instructed the State Department
of Mental Health to conduct research into the “causes and cures of
homosexuality.”
In a unanimous 36-0 vote, senators
approved the measure without debate. Assembly members approved the
law with a 62-0 vote in April. The measure heads back to the
Assembly for members to vote on amendments.
The law, placed on the books in 1950,
classifies gay men and lesbians as sexual deviants and possible child
molesters.
Equality California, the state's
largest gay advocate, lobbied for passage of the bill sponsored by
Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat.
“It's discriminatory, it's insulting
and it has got to go,” Lowenthal told the AP in April. “Sixty
years is more than long enough.”
Calling the repeal effort “offensive,”
the ex-gay group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), a
group that claims sexual orientation can – and should – be
altered, objected to repeal of the law.