USA: California governor announces new pardon initiative for those prosecuted for being gay

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced that his office would be launching a new initiative to pardon people who have prosecuted in California for being gay.

Inspired by a call to posthumously pardon Bayard Rustin, a humanitarian and civil rights leader who was convicted of a misdemeanor vagrancy offense for consensual adult homosexual activity, Newsom launched a new clemency initiative.

Under the new initiative, the governor’s office will work to identify eligible candidates for pardon and process their applications in an expedited manner.

California repealed a law criminalizing consensual sex between same-sex adults in 1975 and established a process for individuals to be removed from the California Sex Offender Registry in 1997, but that did not change the convictions or constitute a pardon.

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