BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 959
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ACCOUNTABILITY AND ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW
Rudy Salas, Chair
AB 959
(Chiu) - As Amended March 26, 2015
SUBJECT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Disparities
Reduction Act
SUMMARY: Requires certain state departments, in the course of
collecting demographic data directly or by contract as to the
ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians, to collect voluntary
self-identification information pertaining to sexual orientation
and gender identity. Specifically, this bill:
1)Applies only to the following state departments:
a) The Department of Health Care Services;
b) The Department of Public Health;
c) The Department of Social Services; and,
d) The Department of Aging.
AB 959
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2)Requires collected data to be reported to the Legislature
during the regular process of reporting demographic data.
3)Requires collected data to be reported to the public in
accordance with state and federal law, except for personal
identifying information, which shall be deemed confidential
and shall not be disclosed.
4)Requires the specified state departments to comply as soon as
possible, but no later than July 1, 2017.
EXISTING LAW requires a state agency, board, or commission that
directly, or by contract, collects demographic data as to the
ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians, to use separate
collection categories and tabulations for each major Asian group
and each major Pacific Islander group. This data is required to
be made available to the public in accordance with state and
federal law, except for personal identifying information, which
shall be deemed confidential (Government Code 8310.5)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: State government agencies routinely collect
demographic data on race, ethnicity, gender, and disability on a
wide variety of state forms and surveys. The purpose of this
data is to help better understand disparities in underserved
communities. Current law only requires any state agency, board,
or commission that directly, or by contract, collects
demographic data to separate the collection of this data by
major Asian groups. The law is silent on demographic data
collection based on sexual orientation or gender identity. This
bill would fill this gap in state-collected demographic data to
include sexual orientation or gender identity data collection.
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According to the author, the inclusion of this data collection
would help to end the long-standing systematic discrimination
towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
communities. The author states that the lack of hard evidence
on the health and well-being disparities impacting LGBT
communities essentially keeps these individuals invisible to the
state and hence excluded from government funding and services
that address health disparities and the effects of stigma and
discrimination.
The author seeks to reduce health and well-being disparities for
LGBT communities by ensuring that sexual orientation and gender
identity data is collected on a statewide basis by key
government agencies that deal with health and human services.
This bill requires the Departments of Health Care Services,
Public Health, Aging and Social Services to include the
collection of sexual orientation and gender identity data in the
course of their current demographic data collection efforts.
This bill is intentionally non-specific about which programs or
surveys currently conducted by each department should include
sexual orientation and gender identity data to provide the
departments the flexibility to implement its overall goal. It
also explicitly emphasizes the need for privacy when collecting
this data for the safety of those who voluntarily self-identify.
The aggregated sexual orientation and gender identity data
collected as a result of this bill would be reported to the
Legislature and made publicly available.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
AB 959
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Equality California (sponsor)
ACLU of California
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center
California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies
California Labor Federation
California LGBT Health & Human Services Network
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
LGBTQ Center of Long Beach
Lutheran Social Services of Northern California
NorCal Mental Health America
Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County
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San Francisco Drug Users Union
San Francisco HIV/AIDS Provider Network
San Francisco Suicide Prevention
University of California San Francisco LGBT Resource Center
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:William Herms / A. & A.R. / (916) 319-3600