BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 959 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 959 (Chiu) As Amended March 26, 2015 Majority vote ------------------------------------------------------------------- |Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------| |Accountability |8-0 |Salas, Lackey, | | | | |Brough, Burke, | | | | |Frazier, Irwin, | | | | |Medina, Rodriguez | | | | | | | |----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------| |Appropriations |13-0 |Gomez, Bonta, | | | | |Calderon, Chang, | | | | |Daly, Eggman, | | | | |Eduardo Garcia, | | | | |Gordon, Holden, | | | | |Quirk, Rendon, | | | | |Weber, Wood | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 AB 959 Page 2 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. 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 AB 959 Page 3 federal law, except for personal identifying information, which shall be deemed confidential (Government Code Section 8310.5) FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, minor costs to four state agencies to update forms and information collection procedures. 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. 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 AB 959 Page 4 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. Analysis Prepared by: William Herms / A. & A.R. / (916) 319-3600 FN: 0000536