California governor signs four LGBTQ rights laws

The bills address housing and health care needs for trans people, insurance discrimination based on HIV status, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on LGBTQ people.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the 2007 gay pride parade
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed four pro-LGBTQ bills into law this past Friday, including one that expands protections for transgender people in prison.

“California has some of the strongest pro LGBTQ+ laws in the nation and with the bills signed today, our march toward equality takes an additional step forward,” Newsom said in a statement about the bevy of bills.

Related: CA governor signs law to equalize punishments for gay & straight sex offenders

SB 132 requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will now be required to ask inmates about their gender identities and pronouns and house them accordingly. This comes just months after a federal judge ruled that calling a transgender person by their correct pronouns would show bias.

State Sen. Scott Wiener (D), who introduced it, said the bill is “life-saving legislation that will protect trans people in prison, particularly trans women who are subject to high levels of assault and harassment in men’s facilities.”

The governor also signed SB 932, a bill that will require…

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