Conjugal visits for CA gay and lesbian prison inmates
This is as much about the equal rights of gay couples as it is about the rights of prisoners. Heterosexual couples have long had the right to conjugal visits in prison, and the two-year-old domestic partnership law in California had the teeth to enforce the same for gays and lesbians, though state prison officials were trying to beat it back:
SAN FRANCISCO, June 1 — Gay and lesbian prisoners in California will be allowed overnight visits with their partners under a new prison policy, believed to be the first time a state has allowed same-sex conjugal stays.
The policy comes more than two years after a 2003 California law provided equal rights for registered domestic partners in California, including those of the same sex and non-married heterosexuals. Gay and civil rights groups had threatened to sue to permit the conjugal visits in prisons, which they say have been slow to enact changes promised by the law.
“It’s a little troubling that a state agency had to be threatened with legal action to obey state law,” said Geoff Kors, the executive director of Equality California, a gay rights organization. “There was no justifiable excuse for not complying.”
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