[1] Its main promoters were George Moscone, an early proponent of gay rights, and his friend and ally Willie Brown, who was serving in the California Assembly at the time.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, sodomy was often considered a “crime against nature” due to the fact that engaging in this form of intercourse disallows any possibility for procreation.

"[4] These laws were extended by state legislation to include oral sex performed on a man or a woman.

Despite improvements on laws protecting minors in cases of molestation, sodomy was still the primary charge.

Its text says "This bill removes criminal sanctions from adulterous cohabitation; and it removes specific criminal sanctions from sodomy and oral copulation except: (1) when the sodomy or oral copulation is committed with a minor or by force, violence, duress, menace or threat of great bodily harm.