SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization, released its annual state legislative scorecard for 2019 last week, demonstrating broad support in the California Legislature for LGBTQ civil rights and social justice. Sixty-one of the 80 members — including two Republicans — received 100 percent scores in the Assembly, and 26 out of 40 senators earned perfect marks. Scores were based on six floor votes and a committee vote in the Assembly and eleven floor votes in the Senate.
Governor Gavin Newsom also scored 100% in his first year in office, after he signed all five bills sponsored by Equality California that reached his desk. Notably, this included historic legislation authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymember Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) to allow pharmacists to furnish life-saving HIV prevention medication without a doctor’s prescription. That bill, SB 159, will take effect January 1, 2020.
Equality California released the following statement from Executive Director Rick Zbur today:
“While the Trump-Pence Administration launches new anti-LGBTQ attacks on a near-daily basis, we’re continuing to work with our partners in the legislature and Governor Newsom to make California a beacon of hope to LGBTQ people around the world. Civil rights and social justice are nonpartisan and nonnegotiable in California, and voters reward pro-equality legislators every two years for their support. President Trump and Senator Mitch ‘Grim Reaper’ McConnell should take note.”
The LGBTQ civil rights organization, which recently launched a Nevada-based statewide program Silver State Equality, will release its annual 2019 federal scorecard in January 2020, evaluating members of both states’ Congressional delegations.
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
