Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Lawyering, Media

California Attorney Facing Bar Complaint Over Proposed Measure To Allow For The Execution Of Gays And Lesbians

California flagAttorney Matt McLaughlin, an attorney in Huntington Beach, California, is facing a call for disbarment after he filed for a statewide resolution that would legalize the execution of gay people and make it a crime to support gay rights in the state. Anyone can file such papers and, for just $200, force the attorney general to prepare a title and a summary for the proposed new law. The question is whether this despicable act can or should be used for a bar action as conduct that shows that he is not of “good moral character.”

The 2016 initiative, named the “Sodomite Suppression Act”, is awaiting further review by the office of the state attorney general, Kamala Harris, and would mandate “any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head, or by any other convenient method.” It would also make it a crime to support gay rights, punishable by a $1 million fine and up to 10 years in prison (as well as expulsion from the state). It would also make it illegal to distribute “sodomistic propaganda” to “any person under the age of majority”. Furthermore, being a “sodomite” or distributing “sodomistic propaganda” would disqualify a resident from serving in public office or public employment and from enjoying any public benefit. McLaughlin stated in his proposal that it is “better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God’s just wrath”. Suffice it to say, McLaughlin has some serious issues as well as a serious need for psychoanalysis.

However, what he did was the exercise of a legal action with the political system. There is an ironic twist to the notion of his claims of morality being used to establish that he is not of “good moral character.” We have faced this type of issue before. If an attorney does not engage in discriminatory or hateful treatment of clients or witnesses, should he be punished for his political or moral views? I tend to be leery of speech being the basis for criminal or bar sanctions because it is difficult to see where to draw the line. There are many attorneys who engage in political speech as individuals that is deemed insulting to different races or genders.

RicardoLaraState senator Ricardo Lara and others have filed a formal complaint with the state bar. It is not clear if any proceeding would bring up past controversies with McLaughlin, including his 2004 proposed initiative to add the King James Bible as a textbook in California public schools. Once again, such efforts are taken in his capacity as a citizen within the political system.

What do you think?

364 thoughts on “California Attorney Facing Bar Complaint Over Proposed Measure To Allow For The Execution Of Gays And Lesbians”

  4. Soory this is lengthy, however I hope this will give some people perspective…
    Larry Kramer reminding all of us that ‪#‎ItsNotOver‬
    https://www.facebook.com/michelangelo.signorile/posts/10205402453315267?notif_t=close_friend_activity

    THIRTY-FOUR YEARS. HIV/AIDS has been our plague for 34 years. We should have known more about this plague by now. 34 years is a very long time to let people die.

    I think more and more about evil. I believe in evil. I believe evil is an act, intentional or not, of inflicting undeserved harm on others. Genocide is such an act. I believe genocide is being inflicted upon gay people.

    Genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or ethnic group. Such as gay people. Such as people of color. To date, around the world, an estimated 78 million people have become infected, 39 million of whom have died. When we first became acquainted with HIV there were 41 cases.

    The main difference between the Larry Kramer who helped to start Gay Men’s Health Crisis in his living room in 1982 and ACT UP in 1987 and the Larry Kramer who stands before you now is that I no longer have any doubt that our government is content, via sins of omission or commission, to allow the extermination of my homosexual population to continue unabated.

    It is talk like this that got the original GMHC board to boot me off and out.

    It is also talk like this that enabled ACT UP to succeed in getting us our own treatments. These treatments are not good enough but have been good enough to extend our lives. Unfortunately they still come with side effects and they reward their greedy manufacturers with more money than they would make locating the cure that would end this plague.

    GMHC was my first child and its rejection was very painful. The original ACT UP self-destructed, which was also a painful experience. Once there were treatments, the desire to act up managed to evaporate rather quickly. This greatest achievement ever facilitated by the gay population—we actually went out there and got our own medicines—then decamped, now that we had a drug that would allow us to do what we did and live the lives that got us in trouble in the first place. The remnants of ACT UP, my second child, is a painful place for me to see now.

    Thirty-four years is a long time for pharmaceutical manufacturers to operate in such an evil system.

    Thirty-four years is a long time for every president and every Congress to sit back and let us die.

    Thirty-four years is a long time for Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is in charge of AIDS research, to watch his and our President and his and our Congress and their National Institutes of Health let us die.

    Allowing people to die is evil and genocidal.

    We should have had more in 35 years.

    These are not what most people would call bad people. But these heterosexuals are not people who are losing any sleep over the death of so many millions of people.

    I no longer hear the word “cure” from the remnants of ACT UP or it’s spin-off Treatment Action Group, TAG, or from anyone in our health care establishment starting with Dr. Fauci. I certainly don’t hear it from anyone in Congress or the White House. Dr. Robert Gallo said a few weeks ago that AIDS will kill far more people than Ebola ever will.

    Thus what an irony to be asked back into the arms of my first child, GMHC. Just when a new executive director, Kelsey Louie, who feels and says much the same as I did and do, has taken over.

    Kelsey said to me, “It has become clear to me that GMHC has every reason to be more aggressive on all fronts—especially in our public remarks.” Oh, it’s a new world at GMHC, one that I tried to start, and Kelsey Louie is very smart and caring and courageous and I congratulate the board for choosing him to be your new leader. “Many are saying that they are happy to see life back in GMHC,” board chair Roberta Kaplan, our great lesbian lawyer who secured a major marriage victory from the Supreme Court, said when she asked me to come back and I accepted.

    Kelsey said the words that won over my acceptance. “We must aspire to a cure once and for all. Let’s demand a cure and a society that values people with HIV enough to pay for it. Only if we aspire to more can we demand more. Only if we demand more will we get more.”

    My first child sounds like a chip off the old block. I salute him and all of you for being here to join me in supporting Kelsey and his and our new GMHC. The power to change history is still within our grasp. We cannot wait another 34 years. This evil still being waged against us must cease. The battle cry now must be one word: CURE. CURE. CURE.

    Allowing people to die is evil and genocidal.

    Yes, I believe in evil.

    78 million people have become infected, 39 million have died.

    I no longer hear the word “cure” from anyone.

    It is time to hear it from everyone. Led by GMHC. We demand a cure!

    Squeky,
    Instead of the shame and blame game… how about a cure instead?
    See, a cure means no more HIV and AIDS… not seeking a cure feeds your hysteria. It’s a “pick your battles” argument and you appear to be on the side that support genocide. But maybe I misread you…

  6. @Max-1

    Oopsies! Forgot the link!

    http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/pdf/meth.pdf

    There is a growing body of research on methamphetamine use among men who have sex with men (MSM). Overall, assessments show that
    MSM who use methamphetamine may increase their sexual risk factors (for example, they may use condoms less often, have more sex partners, and
    may engage in practices that elevate their risk for HIV infection, such as unprotected receptive anal sex) and perhaps their HIV-related drug-use risk
    factors (for example, injecting methamphetamine instead of smoking or snorting it) [1].

    MSM are not the only group with risk factors related to methamphetamine use. Evidence shows that heterosexual adults and adolescents under the
    influence of methamphetamine may also engage in practices that increase their risk for HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) [2].
    However, among MSM, the baseline prevalence of infections (such as HIV) and risk behaviors (such as number of partners and anal sex) tends to be
    higher, resulting in greater risk for transmission.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  7. @Max-1

    The Universe is under no obligation to be fair, and treat all of its inhabitants the same way. Careless sex between heterosexuals is not as dangerous as careless sex between gay men. That is what the CDC said in effect, that anal sex is the most dangerous kind of interaction. The facts are what the facts are.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  9. Nick Spinelli
    I would put crystal meth up on the list of dangers to gay men.
    = = =
    Just gay men?
    Seriously Nick, you aren’t suggesting that crystal meth is good for straights? In all honesty, crystal meth is a danger to everyone, regardless of their sexuality.

    NO?

    1. Max-1 – I lost two brothers to AIDS. I do call this a distraction.

  12. @Ken Rogers

    I looked your theories up as they regard HIV/AIDs, and it seems that the claims are about 20 years old, and of dubious value. I found this tidbit really ironic:

    Death of HIV-positive denialists

    In 2007, aidstruth.org, a website run by HIV researchers to counter denialist claims,[78] published a partial list of HIV/AIDS denialists who had died of AIDS-related causes. For example, the editors of the magazine Continuum consistently denied the existence of HIV/AIDS. The magazine shut down when its editors all died of AIDS-related causes.[79] In each case, the HIV/AIDS denialist community attributed the deaths to unknown causes, secret drug use, or stress rather than HIV/AIDS.[20][56] Similarly, several HIV-positive former dissidents have reported being ostracized by the AIDS-denialist community after they developed AIDS and decided to pursue effective antiretroviral treatment.[80]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_denialism

    Sooo, while I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person, this one, this one seems pretty much put to bed. I would suggest that one exercise a great deal of caution when it comes to permitting one’s self to be sodomized but pretty much by anybody. but particularly by strangers.

    Plus, if you are a man who has sex with other men, you have a moral obligation to get yourself checked out, even if an unhappy answer interferes with your future sex life.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. Squeeky – some of those men are bisexual. So women need to be careful, too. And HIV is transmitted by sharing drug needles, which also causes problems.

  13. Annie mentioned above about a counter initiative titled the Jackass Act…

    Author Dr. Charlotte Laws discusses the ballot initiative she wrote called The Intolerant Jackass Act, which punishes anyone who brings forth an initiative that suggests the killing of gays or lesbians. Laws proposed this in response to the Sodomite Suppression Act (SSA). The SSA was drafted by a Southern CA attorney and calls for shooting gays in the head. Charlotte Laws is interviewed about her proposal on “Which Way, LA?” on KCRW on March 23, 2015 by Warren Olney. Other guests include Joe Matthews and Kim Alexander. Laws’ proposal requires that intolerant jackasses (like McLaughlin) get sensitivity training and make a hefty donation to the LGBT community.

  15. @PCS

    “You still have an autism study with more than a 1000 children in it and the cut-off is not unreasonable. I have seen studies with as few as 18 people cited.”

    Did you skip over this or did you just not understand it:

    “ ‘Oh my God, I did not believe that we did what we did, but we did. It’s all there… This is the lowest point in my career, that I went along with that paper. I have great shame now when I meet families of kids with autism, because I have been part of the problem.’—CDC Whistleblower Dr. William W. Thompson, in a recorded interview with Dr. Brian Hooker.”

    1. Ken – I read the entire article, however, based on what was submitted, I did not see a problem with the study being withdrawn and subjects taken out that did not meet the new criteria.

      I would have to see the raw data of both studies before I potentially got up in arms about the results. I am only going on what you submitted. That fact that he ‘feels’ bad is on him.

  16. Paul

    Thanks for bringing in Obama.

    Like I said, and reiterate after reading all these comments, keep them together in groups, call them churches. Keep them close together, rubbing, maybe they will burst into flames.

  17. Paul C.:

    The revolving door was firmly in place when Obama was still in diapers. Jeepers, give it a rest.

  19. @ Squeaky Fromm Pom

    Here’s some more hard-to-ignore evidence of the corporate-state collusion between the CDC and Big Pharma, and why the CDC’s pronouncements and recommendations should be taken with at least a bucket of salt:

    “Former Head of CDC Lands Job As President Of Merck Vaccine Division

    “You’ve heard it before, how the pharmaceutical industry and federal government have a giant “revolving door” through which corporations and government agencies frequently exchange key employees.

    (See my previous posts on corporatism and the characteristics of fascism.)

    “That reality was driven home in a huge way today when news broke that
    Dr. Julie Gerberding, who headed the CDC from 2002 through 2009, landed a
    top job with Merck, one of the largest drug companies in the world. Her job
    there? She’s the new president of the vaccine division.

    “How convenient. That means the former head of the CDC was very likely
    cultivating a relationship with Merck all these years, and now comes the big
    payoff: Heading up a $5 billion division that sells cervical cancer vaccines
    like Gardasil, chickenpox vaccines, and of course H1N1 swine flu vaccines,
    too.

    “So what’s the problem with all this? The problem is that private industry and
    government health offices such as the CDC or FDA should never be so cozy.
    When they are, it creates an environment of collusion between Big
    Government and Big Pharma.”

    “The people who run the regulatory agencies and public health offices should
    never be allowed to leap into employment at the very same companies they
    were once regulating.

    “There’s just too much risk of cross-contamination of influence, which is why
    we have the corruption and collusion problems we’re seeing today with the
    FDA, FTC and CDC, all of which seem to be operating as marketing
    extensions of the pharmaceutical industry.

    “As long as the revolving door remains wide open between Big Pharma and
    Big Government, there will be a strong tendency towards corporate collusion
    that betrays the people whom government is supposed to serve.

    “Instead of our government serving the People, in other words, it increasingly
    exists to serve the interests of Big Business. And big business doesn’t get
    much bigger than Big Pharma.

    “After all, inventing fictitious diseases, creating pandemic panics, then selling
    questionable patented drugs to gullible consumers is a lucrative business
    model.

    “And now the official job of the former head of the CDC is to make sure it all
    stays that way. So roll up your sleeves, folks: There’s a vaccine with your
    name on it, and Dr. Gerberding is here to make sure Merck sticks it to ya.”

    http://www.veganvillage.org/Article-Head-Of-CDC-Takes-Job-At-Merck.html

    1. You can blame Obama for the revolving door. He was supposed to stop that, but he has been giving everyone a get out of jail free card.

    1. @ Nick Spinelli

      “I would put crystal meth up on the list of dangers to gay men.”

      As a matter of fact, Professor Duesberg’s evaluation of the laboratory and epidemiological evidence for the etiology of AIDS has led him to the conclusion, which I support, that drug use, recreational and anti-retroviral, is the leading cause of AIDS in the US and Europe.

      Here’s the abstract of a paper he co-authored with David Rasnick:

      “THE DRUG-AIDS HYPOTHESIS

      “Abstract

      “The war on the new AIDS epidemic has been a complete failure in terms of public health benefits: 50,000 to 75,000 Americans develop AIDS per year and over $8 billion are spent annually on AIDS research and treatment by the US taxpayer alone, but there is no vaccine, and no effective drug, and not one AIDS patient has been cured. It is proposed here that this failure is the responsibility of the hypothesis that AIDS is caused by a virus named HIV.

      “This hypothesis has monopolized AIDS research and treatment since 1984, but it neither explains nor predicts numerous AIDS facts, nor has it produced any public health benefits. In order to solve AIDS we propose here the drug-AIDS hypothesis. The drug hypothesis holds that all American AIDS diseases that exceed their normal low background are caused by the long-term consumption of recreational drugs, anti-HIV/AIDS drugs or both.

      “This hypothesis is based on the only new health risk to emerge during the past 25 years in America and Europe: the drug epidemic. In America the consumers of recreational drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, nitrite inhalants, and heroin soared from negligible numbers in the 1970s to currently 20 millions, or 8% of the population.

      “In addition, over 200,000 HIV-positives take since 1987 daily prescriptions of inevitably toxic DNA chain-terminators such as AZT and simultaneously consume many other orthodox and unorthodox, toxic anti-HIV/AIDS medications.

      “All AIDS facts confirm the drug hypothesis: 1) AIDS is new because the drug epidemic is; 2) over 95% of American AIDS patients are long-term users of recreational and anti-viral drugs, because drugs cause AIDS; 3) 9 out of 10 AIDS cases are males because they consume 90% of the drugs; 4) the age distributions of diseases and deaths from drugs and AIDS are both 25 to 54 years because drugs cause AIDS; 5) babies develop AIDS from sharing intravenous drugs with their mothers during pregnancy; 6) Kaposi’s sarcoma as an AIDS disease is restricted to male homosexuals because they use carcinogenic nitrite inhalants as sexual stimulants almost exclusively (98%); 7) termination of drug use has prevented and has even cured pediatric, male homosexual and intravenous drug-AIDS cases.

      “According to the drug-AIDS hypothesis AIDS is preventable by banning anti-HIV/AIDS drugs and by advertising the medical consequences of recreational drugs. Such a program could be as successful as the campaign that has reduced smoking 40% by advertising the medical consequences of tobacco use.

      “The drug-AIDS hypothesis could save 50,000 to 75,000 lives per year, $8 billion that are annually spent unproductively on AIDS research and therapy based on the virus hypothesis, and much of the $15 billion that is annually spent on supply control in the failed War on Drugs by lowering demand with advertisements that drugs cause AIDS. The solution to AIDS and the drug epidemic is as close as a very affordable and testable, independent AIDS hypothesis.”
      http://virusmyth.com/aids/hiv/pddrdrugaids.htm

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