In news that has somehow actually happened, a lawyer from California has proposed a bill that would legalise murdering gay and lesbian people in the state.

In even worse news, the ballot - the Sodomite Suppression Act - will actually be put to the signature-gathering stage as under Californian law, anyone who pays a $200 (£134) fee can propose legislation without it being blocked by the state's attorney general.

Matt McLaughlin's bill dubs gay sex as a "monstrous evil that Almighty God... commands us to supress on pain of utter destruction", and calls on gay people to be "put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method".

Not only can officials not block the bill, it's unlikely that McLaughlin can be disbarred - even though disciplinary action can be taken in the event of acts of "moral turpitude" being committed - on the grounds of free speech.

Nevertheless, the LGBT Caucus in the state's legislature said:

We have spent most of our personal and professional lives combating bigotry wherever it lies. While we believe that this measure may not qualify for the statewide ballot, we cannot in good conscience stand idly by.

The only bright spot is that McLaughlin, who previously tried and failed to get the Bible designated as a text book in schools, will never see the bill passed into law, as it is unlikely in the extreme it will attract the 366,000 signatures it needs to make it to the ballot paper, and, more importantly, what he proposes is patently 100 per cent illegal.

But as Slate notes, there are several other attempts to demean and discriminate against gay people and their families currently passing through state legislatures, and these ones have a chance of actually being enacted.

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