Working with a variety of state senators and assemblymembers, Equality California (EQCA), a non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of GLBT people in California, is sponsoring several new pieces of legislation for 2010.

“This year’s legislation seeks to close the equality gap and to advance our mission to achieve full equality for LGBT Californians,” said EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors. “So it’s a very strategic year.”

This year’s package of new legislation – five bills and one resolution – tackle a range of issues impacting GLBT Californians including, marriage equality, government data collection, hate crimes protection, unemployment benefits and tax equity between domestic partners and same-sex married couples

One bill, the Civil Marriage Religious Freedom Act, addresses one of the main arguments that anti-gay groups used in the months leading to the passage of Proposition 8 (the state ban against same-sex marriage), the idea that if same-sex marriage became legal in California, then religious institutions and ministers would be forced to marry same-sex couples and if they declined could potentially lose their tax exempt status. The bill makes it clear that clergy/religious institutions have the right to not marry same-sex couples and will not lose their tax-exempt status for doing so.

Kors said the bill is critical to the fight for marriage equality in that it will debunk such accusations.

“What we want to do is actually put it in the code directly so that when we do go back to the ballot and the other side raises it, we can actually do an ad and show people that California law already protects that,” Kors said, whose organization has endorsed 2012 as the year to enter new legislation to overturn Proposition 8.

Sen. Mark Leno, who represents Senate District 3 in San Francisco, authored the bill.

Besides the religious freedom bill, EQCA is also sponsoring legislation on the protection of hate crime victims and the state’s collection of demographic data.

Currently, the state does not collect any information about GLBT people on its voluntary demographic data forms. The Data Inclusion Act would change that by requiring the state to add questions about sexual orientation, gender identity and domestic partnership status to its forms.

Kors said the bill would enable the state to gather vital data about the GLBT community’s use of public services, such as health care, unemployment and AIDS assistance programs.

“It’s also very important to start getting a real sense of the numbers and where our population lives. We don’t really have those numbers,” he said.

Author of the bill, Assemblymember Ted Lieu, who represents Assembly District 53 in Torrance, said the measure would “help ensure that the needs of the LGBT community will not be excluded” and “that state services can be appropriately targeted.”

Another piece of new legislation sponsored by EQCA, called the Hate Crimes Protection Act, seeks to prohibit contracts, called mandatory arbitration agreements, from requiring a person to waive their legal rights under the Ralph Civil Rights Act, which provides protections against hate related crimes.

“Victims of hate-based violence and intimidation should not be forced into private arbitration against their will as they seek justice,” said Assemblymember Lori Saldaña, who represents Assembly District 76 in San Diego, whom authored the bill. “They deserve their day in court if they want it.”

“We’ve seen it with universities, employers and renters. They have you wave your rights to a trail and force you into arbitration,” Kors said. “We think that that not appropriate.”

EQCA is also sponsoring a resolution on income tax filing. Unlike married opposite-sex couples who can jointly file their federal taxes, the federal government requires domestic partners and married same-sex couples to file separate tax returns. The resolution, called the Domestic Partner Tax Equity Resolution, asks the Internal Revenue Service to allow the state’s same-sex married couples and domestic partners to file a joint tax return.

In addition to its new legislation for the year, EQCA is continuing to work on seven other pieces of legislation – two bills and five resolutions – that were introduced into the state legislature in 2009 and are still pending review. One bill, called Minor Mental Health Consent, would allow youth ages 12-17 to receive mental health treatment without parental permission.

Sen. Mark Leno, who authored the bill, said the mental health measure is not only important for GLBT youth but for all youth who have been abused by parents or guardians and are unable to speak to anyone about it.

“Say you have alcoholic parents who are abusing you emotionally or physically or mentally, and you need to talk to someone about it. If you need your parents permission to do so, it’s like your not going to talk to that counselor who could save your life,” Leno said.

Kors said he’s optimistic that this year’s package of legislation will pass.

“You know the governor has been supportive of the vast majority of our bills, he’s vetoed some clearly, but he’s supported the majority of them,” Kors said.

For more information on the legislation that EQCA is currently working on, visit http://alturl.com/awjc.