SACRAMENTO, California (LifeSiteNews) – California Democrats have yet again blocked efforts to strengthen protections from underage sex trafficking, this time a bill to make it a felony to purchase 16- or 17-year-olds for sex.
As covered by LifeSiteNews last year, Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove proposed a measure to make it a felony to engage in prostitution with someone one either knows or should have reasonably understood to be a minor, up from a misdemeanor under the previous law. LGBT activists complained that the law was “overly punitive,” would “disproportionately impact marginalized communities,” and would criminalize members of the so-called “LGBTQ community.” Lawmakers eventually forced a deal to limit new felony penalties to cases involving someone younger than 16.
Now, NBC affiliate KCRA reported that Democrat state Assemblymember Maggy Krell is making another effort to protect the minors not covered by the compromise by making it a felony to solicit sex with anyone under 18, yet is facing resistance.
Democrat state Assemblyman Nick Shultz, chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, says the bill will not move forward because it is inconsistent with the terms of last year’s agreement. “My perspective as chair, there was a carefully crafted deal last year,” he said. “We’re not saying no, but what we’re saying is if we’re going to be thoughtful policy makers, we really need to dive deep into this issue.”
But Grove is calling the move “completely evil,” and Krell calls it a “disgrace.”
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’m not going to quit now. And I am going to bring this part of this bill back every year until I get the books to protect children. That’s what I’m going to do,” she said. “I was told that it was pulled and the only way I could get it back on the agenda is if parts of the bill would be blocked.”
California under Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is arguably the most aggressive state in the Union when it comes to forcing LGBT dictates on all aspects of society, from imposing fines on retailers who do not establish designated “gender-neutral” sections for children’s merchandise to threatening the custody of parents who refuse to affirm their children’s gender confusion to housing “trans-identifying” males in women’s prison to forcing teachers to withhold signs of a child’s gender dysphoria from their parents to requiring hospital workers to undergo training for conformity to LGBT ideology.
