How Kamala Harris deftly killed an awful “Kill the Gays” ballot initiative in California

On February 26, 2015, the California Attorney General’s Office stamped “received” on a cover letter from Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin, acknowledging receipt of a proposed initiative for the November ballot that would authorize the mass murder of gays and lesbians in the state.

McLaughlin called his proposal the “Sodomite Suppression Act.”

Related:

Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris on LGBTQ+ rights: A side-by-side comparison

LGBTQ+ rights are a crucial issue in the 2024 election. Here’s where Donald Trump and Kamala Harris stand on key queer issues.

Kamala Harris was the state attorney general.

Dive deeper every day

Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues

Daily

Weekly

Good News

Harris had just won reelection — overwhelmingly — in November, and three weeks before McLaughlin’s measure landed in her inbox, she had declared her intention to seek the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Barbara Boxer, who announced her retirement that January.

Now Harris was confronted with a hateful proposal she had no choice but to deal with: under California state law, the attorney general has zero discretion to disregard a properly proposed initiative filing, no matter how intentionally provocative, discriminatory, or felonious.  

The “Sodomite Suppression Act” was all three.

And prophetic, too.

What came to be known as the “Shoot the Gays” initiative detailed several steps to eliminate the gay and lesbian population of California based on McLaughlin’s interpretation of Scripture.

“The abominable crime against nature known as buggery, called also sodomy, is a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha [sic],” McLaughlin wrote.

“Seeing that it is better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God’s just wrath against us for the folly of tolerating-wickedness in our midst, the People of California wisely command, in the fear of God, that 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.”

The proposed measure would outlaw “sodomistic propaganda directly or indirectly by any means to any person under the age of majority.” Violators would be fined “and/or imprisoned up to 10 years, and/or expelled from the boundaries of the state of California for up to life.”

And, McLaughlin added, “No person shall serve in any public office, nor serve in public employment, nor enjoy any public benefit, who is a sodomite or who espouses sodomistic propaganda or who belongs to any group that does.”

As word got out about the outrageous proposal, LGBTQ+ advocates demanded Harris abdicate her responsibilities and ignore the proposal, but state law, in place since Progressives instituted the “direct democracy” provision in 1911, explicitly required the attorney general to fulfill her ministerial duty to issue a title and summary of the hateful proposal.

Harris wasn’t having it.

“It is my sworn duty to uphold the California and United States Constitutions and to protect the rights of all Californians,” Harris said as a deadline for action loomed. “This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society.”

For the first time, a California attorney general sought relief from her sworn obligation and petitioned the state’s highest court to dismiss it.

“If the court does not grant this relief,” she said, “my office will be forced to issue a title and summary for a proposal that seeks to legalize discrimination and vigilantism.”

There was little-to-no chance McLaughlin would collect the 365,880 signatures of registered voters required to make the ballot, and even less that Californians would approve it or that it would survive the inevitable court challenges if it did pass.

But the same electorate had defied predictions before: on the night Barack Obama was elected the first Black president of the United States, California voters outlawed same-sex marriage in the state.

And some of McLaughlin’s ideas have gained currency since he first proposed them.

In Texas, lawmakers have sanctioned vigilantism in pursuit of parents of trans children seeking gender-affirming care, and among hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ proposals circulating in red states are provisions outlawing LGBTQ+ “propaganda” directed at minors, based on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ hateful Don’t Say Gay legislation.

In Russia, the same language that McLaughlin proposed was signed into law by authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin in a series of laws and proclamations seeking to erase LGBTQ+ identity altogether in the country.

And in Uganda, the Kill the Gays law (Anti-Homosexuality Act) has essentially adopted all of McLaughlin’s proposals in draconian legislation outlawing homosexuality, with death the ultimate penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”

However outrageous, McLaughlin’s hateful ballot initiative was sadly prophetic.

In California, though, Harris used the law and her prosecutor’s skill to make certain the “Sodomite Suppression Act” wouldn’t survive receipt by her office.

Judge Raymond Cadei of California’s Superior Court agreed with Harris that McLaughlin’s measure was unconstitutional; forcing the attorney general to further the proposal would be “inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions among the public and tend to mislead the electorate,” the judge ruled.

Said Harris of the decision: “This proposed act is the product of bigotry, seeks to promote violence, is patently unconstitutional and has no place in a civil society.”

“I applaud the court’s decision to block its title and summary. My office will continue to fight for the rights of all Californians to live free from hatred and intolerance.”

Following the ruling, out California assembly speaker Toni Atkins said, “The court has brought an appropriate end to this disturbing episode.

“LGBT Californians shouldn’t be threatened and our initiative process shouldn’t be hijacked,” she added. “Let’s hope it’s the last time our system is abused to promote the political equivalent of toxic waste.”

The very same week that the court ruled for Harris, Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president of the United States.

Nine years later, Harris has another opportunity to stop an attempted hijacking and to take out the trash.

Don't forget to share: