The California Teachers Association claim to be the “protectors” of LGBTQ kids yet they support laws that remove their safeguards. For example, in 2017, CTA supported SB 239 which significantly decreased the penalty of intentionally infecting someone with HIV. It used to be a felony, but SB 239 reduced it to a misdemeanor, which means a max fine of $1000 or max county jail time of one year. Four years later in 2021, the same Senator (Weiner) who authored SB 239, authored SB 145 which says there can be a 10 year age difference for consensual oral or anal sex, which means a 14 year old boy can consent to having sex with a 24 year old man and it will not be classified as statutory rape. The combination of these two laws is very bad news for kids who are easily manipulated. By supporting SB 239, the CTA has trivialized the penalty of an adult intentionally infecting a minor with HIV. After SB 145 passed, CTA made no attempts to adjust the implications of intentionally infecting minors with HIV.
