California Demands Proof You’re LGBTQ for Contracts—but Not Proof You’re a Citizen to Vote
28th June 2026
California has achieved something almost impossible in the annals of bureaucratic absurdity: It has made citizenship easier to assert for voting than sexual orientation is to document for favored utility contracting.
To register to vote, a person fills out a form, signs an affidavit, and attests under penalty of perjury that he is a U.S. citizen and California resident. The state may check identifying information against databases, but it does not generally require a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization certificate before letting him enter the electorate.
For something as grave as sovereignty—deciding taxes, judges, crime policy, schools, and the future of the state—citizenship is treated largely as an attestation.
But if a small business wants to qualify as LGBTQ+ owned under California’s utility supplier-diversity system, Sacramento suddenly discovers verification.
The applicant must prove the company is majority-owned and controlled by an LGBTQ+ person. How? Marriage or domestic-partnership records. Health insurance paperwork. Joint living arrangements. A letter from an LGBTQ+ chamber leader. Media coverage identifying the owner as LGBTQ+. A physician or attorney letter. Or, most absurdly, three personal-reference letters from people who have known the owner for more than a year and can attest to the owner’s LGBTQ+ status.
Citizenship is treated as an attestation. Sexual orientation is treated as a credential.