Calif. Repeals 'Gay Cure' Law

A law directing California's Department of Mental Health to seek a "cure" for homosexuality is on its way out. The state assembly has voted unanimously to scrap sections of a 1950 law that classified gay people as "sexual deviants" and ordered research into the causes of homosexuality, NBC reports.

The law was brought in amidst public outrage at the rape and murder of a 6-year-old by a heterosexual killer. "Even then, there was no legal justification to say that gay people needed to be understood and cured in the exact same way as sexual predators who rape and kill children," says the Democratic assemblywoman who sponsored the change. "For us to leave it there would be wrong." (More gay rights stories.)