Fighting to Keep PFP Feminist

Proposed Resolution for the Reform of Sex Offender Registration Laws And Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking

By Jan B. Tucker¹

Whereas, the California Peace & Freedom Party (PFP) became the first political party to declare itself to be a feminist party in 1974;

And whereas, beginning with its 1970 “Long Beach Platform,” PFP dedicated itself to full support for the decriminalization of consenting adult sexual acts and relationships and to full equality for LGBT people;

And whereas, in 1972, the People’s Party adopted the first political party plank on Ageism² committing the party to fight discrimination against and victimization of the young and the old alike;

And whereas, in 1974 PFP elected Kayren Hudiburgh as the first woman to head the State Central Committee of a California political party and subsequently voted to expel a member for sexually harassing and assaulting her in PFP’s first and only expulsion;³

And whereas, up until the past few years, the FBI’s civil rights squad in Los Angeles devoted only two individuals to combating human trafficking, neither of which spoke Spanish, and that when the supervising special agent of that squad demanded and finally received more personnel including bilingual agents, he was rewarded by being forced out of the FBI;

And whereas, an impediment to efforts to combat human trafficking is the exemption from sex offender registration requirements of Section 290 of the California Penal Code of pimps and panderers who traffick adults rather than juveniles;

And whereas, a since corrected loophole in California law, i.e., mandatory probation for family members who molested children, created a Hobbes choice for falsely accused defendants in which a significant number pleaded guilty to avoid imprisonment who have no legal recourse to clear their names;

And whereas, defendants who entered into plea agreements with a promise that they would not be subject to public scrutiny through California’s initial “1-900” telephone access number were later subjected to public scrutiny of their status due to the unexpected development of public internet access to sex offender records;

And whereas, those convicted of certain misdemeanor sex offenses are exempt from public scrutiny for no rational reason while persons convicted of offenses that are no longer crimes (such as LGBT sex) and otherwise irrelevant offenses such as urinating in public (as opposed to intentional “flashing”) are required to register as sex offenders;

And whereas, no political organization that purports to be feminist should tolerate within its ranks any person who objectifies, manipulates, mistreats, or in any way abuses women and/or girls;

Therefore be it resolved that California PFP calls for:

1. Vigorous, positive, and fully funded efforts by law enforcement to combat human trafficking;
2. Amendment of Section 290 of the California Penal Code to require the registration of all convicted pimps and panderers;
3. Decriminalization of consenting adult sex, whether or not it is commercial in nature, with strict and vigorous regulation to prevent the exploitation of voluntary sex workers;
4. Vigorous, positive, and fully funded efforts to provide alternatives to financially stressed people to prevent them from being forced to engage in sex work by poverty;
5. Creation under the auspices of the California Department of Justice of a commission or study group or task force to study and recommend reforms for the mitigation of the above outlined problems in the statutory schemes and enforcement of laws that deal with sex crimes, to include representatives of prosecutor and law enforcement agencies, criminal defense attorneys and investigators, and academicians;
6. Adoption of a bylaw of the PFP to create a rebut-table presumption that conviction for a non-victimless sex crime renders a person ineligible for membership in PFP organizational bodies.

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