AB 1338 grants same-sex civil unions equal status with current marriages. It changes every aspect of California law and eliminates the terms husband, wife, and spouse, and instead inserts the gender-neutral term person. The bill says, This act shall be construed broadly to equalize civil union and civil marriage under all applicable laws so that in this state, every other state, the United States and its territories, and every foreign country, married persons and parties to a civil union shall have exactly the same rights, privileges, benefits, protections, and responsibilities under law whether derived from the Constitution of the United States, the California Constitution, statute, ordinance, administrative, or court rule, policy, case law, common law, or any other source of law. Under California's Penal Code gender is described as the victim's actual sex or perception sex, whether or not that identity, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the victim's sex at birth. This could mean that if a 200 pound, bearded employee feels his gender can best be expressed in a dress and high heels, the employer can t object.
Current laws exempts religious organizations from anti-discrimination laws.
This bill is further encroachment of religious freedoms. This bill has far-reaching consequences. This is just one examples of the type of abuse, SB 143 will encourage. The bill states that current law has certain authority over CIF but cannot determine specific policies adopted by the CIF designed to comply with state and federal laws. However, this bill violates the authority of the CIF by allowing people with discrimination or hate crime complaints to file directly to the California Department of Education and NOT with the CIF as current law requires.