republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-1615.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Gender discrimination: civil actions."
description: "Existing state and federal law prohibits discrimination based on sex. Existing state law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, prohibits discrimination on a variety of personal characteristics including sex and defines sex to include pregnancy and childbirth. The act provides that sex includes gender and that gender is sex, and that gender includes gender identity and gender expression. Existing law prohibits a business from boycotting or discriminating, among other actions, based on a characteristic protected by the Unruh Civil Rights Act."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 1615"
citation: "California AB 1615 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Gender discrimination: civil actions."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Eduardo Garcia"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 21
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-02-17"
last_action: "2017-07-31"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ecd22fe1-0d70-4f32-9fd6-521b5dd77853"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1615"
source_hash: "573272a454d45a7a0792597c271969e09c087a713ee76bfde6a5cadc552a132d"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1615 (20172018) — Gender discrimination: civil actions.

Existing state and federal law prohibits discrimination based on sex. Existing state law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, prohibits discrimination on a variety of personal characteristics including sex and defines sex to include pregnancy and childbirth. The act provides that sex includes gender and that gender is sex, and that gender includes gender identity and gender expression. Existing law prohibits a business from boycotting or discriminating, among other actions, based on a characteristic protected by the Unruh Civil Rights Act.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/17/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1615&version=20170AB161599INT)
2. **04/06/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1615&version=20170AB161598AMD)
3. **06/27/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1615&version=20170AB161597AMD)
4. **07/31/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1615&version=20170AB161595CHP)
5. **AB1615** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1615)
6. **07/19/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1615&version=20170AB161596ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Consent Calendar 2nd AB1615 — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1615 GARCIA, E. Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1615 GARCIA, E. Consent Calendar Second Day — **69–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Eduardo Garcia — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
- **2017-03-16** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-05** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (April 4). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-04-06** Read second time and amended. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-04-17** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2017-05-10** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 10). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-05-11** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-18** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 69. Noes 0. Page 1619.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-05-18** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-06-01** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-26** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 20). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-06-27** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-passage, reading-2, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2017-07-10** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to consent calendar. `committee-passage`
- **2017-07-11** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-07-13** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 2025.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-07-13** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after July 15 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2017-07-17** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 2569.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2017-07-21** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2017-07-31** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-07-31** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 156, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ecd22fe1-0d70-4f32-9fd6-521b5dd77853`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).