Bretón: But Krell said that this bill wasn’t about cracking down on young people on dates. It was about punishing people who pay for sex with 16 and 17-year-olds.
Epley: We need to understand how Krell and her bill’s co-author, Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, define “payment.” It’s not the stereotype of money changing hands through a car window or left on a bedside table. The bill sought to consider any financial gift that ends in sex “solicitation. For teens, ignorant of the law, that could mean anything from buying the prom tickets or spotting your date for some French fries. California doesn’t need to make actions like that a felony to catch real predators.
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Epley: I think it’s the Republicans who are stifling discussion on this issue by using the scare tactic of claiming that Democrats are all perverts and pedophiles who want to abuse 16- and 17-year-old girls. It’s not true, it’s insulting and it distracts from the real issue at hand, so they can score cheap points — a textbook GOP play.
Democrats are listening to the experts. I recently spoke with a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Minouche Kandel, and she told me that laws like this have historically been used by law enforcement and prosecutors against communities of color and queer communities, particularly queer men of color.