13 – AB 362 – LGBT Health Insurance Parity

Year: 2013

Category: Workplace, Family, Social/Political

Bill Description:

Provides an exemption from state taxes for additional income an employer provides to an employee to make up for federal taxes the employee would otherwise pay to add a registered domestic partner or same-sex spouse (and/or their dependents) to insurance plans.

13 – AB 1266 – School Success and Opportunity Act

Year: 2013

Category: Social/Political, Educational

Bill Description:

AB 1266 addresses the exclusion of transgender students from classes and activities, and clarifies existing anti-discrimination law to provide clear protections to transgender students.

13 – SB 323 – Youth Equality Act

Year: 2013

Category: Workplace, Social/Political

Bill Description:

Clarifies that nonprofit youth organizations will only be rewarded with special tax exemptions if they comply with California’s existing nondiscrimination laws.

12 – SB 1140 – Protect Religious Freedom in Marriage

Year: 2012

Category: Social/Political, Family

Bill Description:

As we continue our efforts to achieve full equality, we must remove every possible barrier to securing the freedom to marry, including the false claim made by anti-equality advocates in California and elsewhere that allowing loving same-sex couples to marry will force clergy or places of worship to compromise their religious beliefs. As we anticipate the restoration of the freedom to marry in our state, SB 1140 (Leno) reaffirms the principles of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with respect to the freedom of clergy to make faith-based decisions regarding which marriages they solemnize.

12 – AB 2356 – Removing Barriers to Family-Building

Year: 2012

Category: Medical, Family, Social/Political

Bill Description:

For many loving, committed couples, having a child and building a family is one of the most important and fundamental keys to happiness. Unfortunately, same-sex couples face many barriers in forming families—including unequal access to fertility health care. AB 2356 (Skinner) will ensure that women in same-sex relationships can access fertility services on the same terms as women in opposite-sex relationships.

12 – AB 1700 – Keeping LGBT People in Their Homes

Year: 2012

Category: Housing, Family, Social/Political

Bill Description:

The death of a lifelong partner is traumatic. But under current law, that trauma can be worsened by property tax penalties that apply unequally to same-sex partners, especially impacting LGBT seniors. AB 1700 (Butler) will ensure that no LGBT person is put at risk of losing the home that he or she has built over a lifetime with a loved one.

12 – AB 1505 – Supporting LGBT Veterans and Military Families

Year: 2012

Category: Workplace, Family, Social/Political

Bill Description:

Under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, LGB service members and their families made tremendous sacrifices, but without the support and recognition afforded to the families of other service members. AB 1505 (Pan) will guarantee that all California service members who were discharged from the military for no reason other than their sexual orientation are eligible for all state benefits for veterans and their families such as home loans, college tuition fee waivers and preference for civil service examinations.

12 – AB 1856 – Providing Safe, Supportive Homes for LGBT Youth

Year: 2012

Category: Family, Social/Political, Housing

Bill Description:

Few things are more devastating to a child than being removed from his or her parents. Yet, for LGBT youth in foster care, this devastation is often compounded by placements in foster homes that are at best ill-equipped to care for LGBT kids or at worst hostile to LGBT people. AB 1856 will help to provide comfort, safety and support to LGBT foster youth by creating LGBT cultural competency standards that foster homes housing LGBT youth must meet.

12 – SB 1172 – Protecting LGBT Youth From Psychological Abuse

Year: 2012

Category: Family, Social/Political

Bill Description:

For decades, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people—particularly youth—have suffered psychological abuse by those who are entrusted to care for their emotional and psychological well-being. It’s long past time to do everything in our power to put an end to the use of tactics that have no sound scientific basis and that cause lifelong damage.

11 – SB 117 – Equal Benefits Bill

Year: 2011

Category: Workplace, Social/Political

Bill Description:

Prohibit a state agency from entering into a contract in the amount of $100,000 or more with a contractor who discriminates based on the gender or sexual orientation of the spouses or domestic partners of employees.