Sexual Propositions: California's Ballot Initiatives and the Regulation of Sexual Behavior.

California's direct-voting ballot proposition system represents an increasingly utilized opportunity for criminal reform. In the past five years, propositions have attempted to change felony and misdemeanor sentencing, soften regulations applying to juvenile offenders, and overturn the death penalty. Yet the proposition process also works in the opposite direction: it can limit existing civil rights, enhance sentencing, or provide frameworks for the future criminalization of behaviors. While literature explores some types of discrimination in ballot propositions, it has yet to examine discrimination in propositions that regulate sexual identity and behavior. This paper examines, 1) How the regulation of sexual deviance via the ballot proposition system has changed over time, and 2) the implications of these changes for the criminalization/decriminalization of various types of sexual behavior and identity. My preliminary results indicate that California propositions regarding sex and the body have shifted from overt discrimination against sexual orientation and lifestyle to the regulation of behavior considered sexually criminal. Yet, definitions of the sexually criminal still encompass embedded homophobia and racism, exposing already vulnerable groups of individuals to additional marginalization, policing, and regulation. The results demonstrate how the state and society continue to use sex, sexuality, and sexual behavior to marginalize and police those considered "undesirable" or "deviant" at various points in time, as well as how intersecting inequalities perpetuate vulnerabilities to state policing and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]