text: It doesn't matter that a California lawyer's outrageous Sodomite Suppression Act ballot initiative proposes executing gays with "bullets to the head," or that it's unconstitutional and could never become law. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is forced to allow the measure to circulate for signatures, legal experts said. 
   
   The initiative, which mandates 10 years in prison and permanent expulsion from California for anyone who advocates gay rights to minors, stands no chance of collecting 365,000 valid signatures it needs to appear on next year's ballot. But because its backer, Matt McLaughlin, paid the $200 filing fee by the February deadline, Harris is bound by law to prepare a title and summary of the initiative by May so that its sponsor can begin collecting signatures, legal experts told the San Francisco Chronicle. 
   
   Joe Mathews, a fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University, argued on California politics website Fox&Hounds; that forcing the attorney general to allow the circulation of such an absurd proposal attacks the integrity of the initiative process. He said a "human rights exception" should be adopted for these instances. 
   
   "When you are taking away fundamental human rights -– as in the right to live -– it is appropriate to give our public officials a formal exception that they can invoke to block an initiative that violates fundamental human rights," Mathews wrote. 
   
   An innovative response to McLaughlin's initiative comes from activist Charlotte Laws, who told Slate she is filing the Intolerant Jackass Act on Monday. The bill reads: 
   
   "Any person, herein known as an 'Intolerant Jackass,' who brings forth a ballot measure that suggests the killing of gays and/or lesbians, whether this measure is called the Sodomite Suppression Act or is known by some other name, shall be required to attend sensitivity training for at least three (3) hours per month for twelve (12) consecutive months. In addition, the offender or "Intolerant Jackass" must donate $5000 to a pro-gay or pro-lesbian organization." 
   
   McLaughlin may face other repercussions for advocating murder. According to the Sacramento Bee, state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D) has askled the State Bar of California to investigate McLaughlin, and more than 3,800 people have signed a petition asking State Bar President Craig Holden to revoke McLaughlin's law license. ||||| People in the LGBT community are our family members, neighbors, and co-workers. They are people like Apple CEO Tim Cook who have changed the way we live. Imagine a law that would make it legal to kill them all. The “Sodomite Suppression Act” is a real voter initiative in California that would “put to death by bullets to the head” anyone who has had sexual relations with a person of the same gender. The initiative wasn’t submitted by a fringe group, but by a California lawyer named Matthew G. McLaughlin. 
   
   Calling for the legalized murder of the LGBT community makes Mr. McLaughlin unfit to practice law. We are demanding the California Bar Association to immediately disbar Matthew G. McLaughlin to prevent him from practicing law in California. 
   
   Lawyers are a critical part of our judicial system. They help ensure our legal system is just and fair. A lawyer such as Mr. McLaughlin who actively pursues creating laws that permit genocide has no business practicing law in California or any other state. The California Bar Association must act swiftly to send a clear message that Matthew G. McLaughlin’s actions do not meet the standards of ethics and behavior set by their organization. 
   
   To ensure Mr. McLaughlin is disbarred, The California Bar Association needs to hear from us. The California Bar is an association that has an internal self discipline process and is usually slow to act. With our voices and outrage, we can get The California Bar to make the right decision now. 
   
   We will not stand by while someone who is suppose to represent our justice system calls for the mass murder of our loved ones. Please sign and share the petition today. 
   
   
   
   You can read the voter initiative here:http://oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/15-0008%20%28Sodomy%29_0.pdf ||||| Photo by American Spirit/Shutterstock.com 
   
   Last Friday, I wrote about California attorney Matt McLaughlin’s bizarre quest to have all gay people in his state executed. In February, McLaughlin paid $200 to file a ballot measure called the Sodomite Suppression Act, which, if passed, would require that gays “be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.” Although the goal of the act is clearly illegal, McLaughlin’s support for it is a constitutionally protected act of free speech for which he probably can’t even be disbarred. Further, California’s attorney general has no power to halt the proposal, thanks to an odd gap in the law. As a result, the Sodomite Suppression Act will now move on to the signature-gathering stage—and, in the unlikely event it receives 365,880 signatures, it will appear on the ballot in November. 
   
   Mark Joseph Stern Mark Joseph Stern covers courts and the law for Slate. 
   
   Frustrated by the attorney general’s inability to combat McLaughlin’s proposal, Charlotte Laws has decided to fight back with some free speech of her own. On Monday morning, Laws plans to file the Intolerant Jackass Act, accompanied by the requisite $200, with the California attorney general. Laws’ proposal cleverly mirrors and skewers the Sodomite Suppression Act, explaining that the “abominable crime known as prejudice against sexual orientation” is “a destructive view that society commands us to suppress.” Thus: 
   
   c) Any person, herein known as an "Intolerant Jackass," who brings forth a ballot measure that suggests the killing of gays and/or lesbians, whether this measure is called the Sodomite Suppression Act or is known by some other name, shall be required to attend sensitivity training for at least three (3) hours per month for twelve (12) consecutive months. In addition, the offender or "Intolerant Jackass" must donate $5000 to a pro-gay or pro-lesbian organization. 
   
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   I spoke to Laws about her initiative—which, she readily acknowledges, is not necessarily designed to become law. 
   
   “I’m fighting fire with fire,” she told me. “The only way to counter [the Sodomite Suppression Act] is … to let people know that most people in California don’t agree with something as incendiary and hateful as what this one attorney proposed.” Laws recognizes the merit of having a content-neutral initiative system, but she believes “we have a very open-minded state and country. This is one guy, and there are millions of us who do not agree with this.”
target: – Activist Charlotte Laws says she is "fighting fire with fire"—and fighting an intolerant jackass with the Intolerant Jackass Act. With California Attorney General Kamala Harris unable to halt the progress of lawyer Matt McLaughlin's Sodomite Suppression Act ballot initiative, which calls for homosexuality to be punished by "bullets to the head," Laws' lighthearted counter-initiative calls for anyone proposing a ballot measure involving killing gay people to be punished with a year of sensitivity training and a hefty donation to a gay rights group, Slate reports. The measure mocks the language of McLaughlin's initiative, which describes homosexuality as an "abominable crime." Laws, who like McLaughlin only had to pay a $200 fee to file the initiative, tells Slate that the measure is a way to show that most Californians "don't agree with something as incendiary and hateful as what this one attorney proposed." McLaughlin's deranged initiative appears bound for the signature-gathering phase, though the state Supreme Court would be certain to step in to keep it off the ballot even if he found the necessary 365,000 signatures, the Guardian reports. The State Bar of California, meanwhile, has been asked to investigate the Huntington Beach lawyer, reports the Huffington Post. A petition to have him disbarred for advocating murder now has more than 18,000 signatures.