Oakland steps toward removing 1879 law against cross-dressing
By Kelly Rayburn
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 05/04/2010 04:06:39 PM PDT
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_15016428 (http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_15016428)
OAKLAND — More than 130 years after city leaders made it illegal to appear in public dressed "in the attire of a person of the opposite sex," Oakland moved Tuesday toward taking a little-known ordinance against cross-dressing off its books.
In a first vote on the matter, City Council members approved removing the language in question from Oakland's municipal code. City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan called it an important move given how such ordinances have been used in the past.
"These laws have a history of being used as a tool of oppression," said Kaplan, Oakland's first openly lesbian elected official.
I find it interesting that the Council is described as "moving toward scrapping it". Surely the sensible thing would have been to have had it struck out at the next sitting of the council?
About 50 miles south of them is the prune producing part of the state, we just need to send a couple of truckloads up to them, and that will make them move toward the end result.