California Attorney General Kamala Harris asked the Sacramento County Superior Court to allow her to block planned ballot measure authorizing the killing of gays and lesbians.

She filed a request with the court seeking to be relieved of her duty regarding ‘Sodomite Suppression Act’ before it advances to the signature-gathering stage. According to Harris, readying it for circulation would waste state resources, generate unnecessary divisions and mislead the public.

She said, “In this case, we are talking about a proposal that literally is calling for violence. It’s calling for vigilantism. I, frankly, do not want to be in the position of giving any legitimacy to those words”.

Huntington Beach attorney Matthew McLaughlin paid $200 last month to file the measure. McLaughlin’s initiative also requires that anyone who transmits ‘sodomistic propaganda’ to a minor be fined $1 million per offense, imprisoned up to 10 years, or expelled from the state.

A Democratic state senator, Ricardo Lara, has asked the California bar to investigate whether McLaughlin is fit to practice law.

California is one of 21 states where citizens can file petition to have laws put on the ballot through the gathering of voter signatures. The California Supreme Court has ruled that under California’s initiative process, state officials do not have authority to refuse to administer initiatives they find objectionable.

University of California, Davis law professor Floyd Feeney said he wasn’t sure that a court would agree to stop the progress of McLaughlin’s measure at this stage regardless of its obvious legal deficiencies.

A Southern California real estate agent, Charlotte Laws, opposed the Sodomite Suppression Act with an initiative of her own and titled the measure as ‘Intolerant Jackass Act’.