The “Intolerant Jackass Act” is the latest attempt at a voter-approved initiative to come out of the state of California.
The beacon of the western United States recently made headlines for the outrageous efforts of attorney Matt McLaughlin, who started a “shoot the gays” initiative, formally called the “Sodomite Suppression Act.”
Under McLaughlin’s initiative , citizens would be encouraged to kill gays with the preferred action being execution-style with a “bullet to the head,” the Huffington Post reports .
As outrageous and “unconstitutional” as that sounds to the state’s attorney general, Kamala Harris, she is nonetheless forced to give it a title and summary for proposal, pushing it along in the initiative process.
McLaughlin would still have to gather 365,000 signatures before it could be voted on, something that Harris hopes to prevent via a formal plea for declaratory relief. Earlier this week, she wrote the following.
“As Attorney General of California, it is my sworn duty to uphold the California and United States Constitutions and to protect the rights of all Californians. This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society. Today, I am filing an action for declaratory relief with the Court seeking judicial authorization for relief from the duty to prepare and issue the title and summary for the “Sodomite Suppression Act.” If the Court does not grant this relief, my office will be forced to issue a title and summary for a proposal that seeks to legalize discrimination and vigilantism.”
On Monday, activist Charlotte Laws responded to the initiative in her own way with the “Intolerant Jackass Act,” which she said that she does not plan on circulating for signatures.
(Probably because McLaughlin’s move has no chance of becoming law.)
In Laws’ proposal, people who enact initiatives like the one that McLaughlin is pursuing would formally label the author of said proposal “an intolerant jackass.” Furthermore, the author would be forced to attend a minimum of three hours sensitivity training per year and make a $5,000 contribution to an organization that supports gay rights.
While the “Intolerant Jackass Act” is a civil form of protest against moves like those from McLaughlin, who knows what could become of it should he be able to secure the 365,000 signatures he needs?
What do you think about Laws’ initiative and McLaughlin’s, too, for that matter? Are we losing our collective minds as a society? Sound off in the comments section.
[Image via Charlotte Laws, linked above]