Here are the California laws will benefit the LGBTQ community in 2018

LGBTQ seniors in California will be protected from discrimination starting in 2018 in long-term care facilities thanks to Gov. Jerry Brown signing SB 219, the “LGBT Senior Long-Term Care Bill of Rights.” Photo: iStock/EyeJoy

Several state bills go into effect this year that will benefit the LGBTQ community.

Here’s a roundup of the legislation that was passed by Sacramento and signed by the governor in 2017.

Starting this year, California’s LGBT seniors will be protected from discrimination in long-term care facilities in five ways.

California’s outdated laws that criminalize and stigmatize people who are HIV positive will be reformed under a bill Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law today.

Some gay and bisexual men who are listed on the state’s sexual offender registry because they were targeted by law enforcement and discriminated against in undercover vice stings will be able to petition the state in 2021 to have their names removed under a law that will go into effect next year.

California is streamlining the process this year for issuing a third gender, non-binary option on state-issued IDs, driver’s licenses, and birth certificates.

About the author

Phillip Zonkel

Award-winning journalist Phillip Zonkel spent 17 years at Long Beach's Press-Telegram, where he was the first reporter in the paper's history to have a beat covering the city's vibrant LGBTQ. He also created and ran the popular and innovative LGBTQ news blog, Out in the 562.

He won two awards and received a nomination for his reporting on the local LGBTQ community, including a two-part investigation that exposed anti-gay bullying of local high school students and the school districts' failure to implement state mandated protections for LGBTQ students.

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