Yesterday, The Washington Examiner ran a piece with the following headline: “California Democrats legalize child prostitution.” This is a twisted and incredibly misleading characterization of SB 1129, a law that will go into effect in California on January 1st. But that didn’t stop Trump conservatives from pouncing on the legislation in all likelihood before doing any research at all on the legislation, or probably even reading the Times article in full.

“California Democrats” began trending this morning on Twitter. Tweets like this were abundant.

Unfreaking believable! Sick ass bastards are so stupid. https://t.co/QvckQbG8wm

— Brian (@baweights) December 30, 2016

Just FYI, California Democrats just legalized child prostitution. CHILD. PROSTITUTION. DEMOCRATS. DID. THIS.

— Xavier Barber (@xavierDbarber) December 30, 2016

Thank you Electoral College for not letting sick deranged California Democrats, void of decency and and morality, control our country.

— ClintonNewsNetwork (@ShillForHillary) December 30, 2016

Just when you think the liberals running California can't do any more harm than they have already. https://t.co/9yegYCJJD6

— Gary Aminoff (@aminoff) December 30, 2016

California Democrats just decriminalized child prostitution if anyone was wondering how much lower they could go.

— Leah the Boss (@LeahRBoss) December 30, 2016

California Democrats legalize child prostitution. Yes, Really! https://t.co/qqUy4WEdYk

— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) December 30, 2016

California Democrats have finally put to rest that they are ALL spawned from Satan. https://t.co/9LA42CTyvy

— Women4Trump🎄💋🎅🏻 (@majority4_trump) December 30, 2016

Does SB 1129 actually legalize child prostitution? No. No, it does not, and that’s an incredibly unfair reading of the law. What the law does is to actually transform a child prostitute — who is not legally capable of providing consent — from a criminal into a victim. The law is designed to aid child prostitutes pimped into the system by sex traffickers.

Sex traffickers and pimps will still be prosecuted. Men and women who sleep with child prostitutes will still be prosecuted. However, rather than arrest child prostitutes and put them in the juvenile detention system, the law provides money to pay for social services so that these children are protected. Police will continue to temporarily detain underage prostitutes, but rather than lock them up in jail, they are diverted into the dependency system, which centers on caring for abused and neglected children.

Is it possible that pimps and sex traffickers will take advantage of the fact that children will be immune from prosecution? Perhaps. But we cannot continue to treat children forced into prostitution by sex traffickers as criminals. They don’t consent to sex with adults, because they can’t consent to sex with adults.

It’s a well-intentioned law, and whatever the consequences, it most certainly does not legalize child prostitution.

California Democrats being attacked for protecting trafficked children shows me that American conservatives are the dumbest people on Earth.

— Joshua David 🚯 (@bathroompolice) December 30, 2016

Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba.