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California's looming gay marriage battle
Paul Strand, Christian Broadcasting Network
February 24, 2005

CBN.com – MADERA, California -- California is about to take on the issue of homosexual marriage in a big way. One side is pushing a law legalizing gay marriage. The other side is promoting a constitutional amendment that would ban it once and for all.

When San Francisco's mayor began authorizing thousands of homosexuals to marry in his city last year, it kicked off nationwide controversy. And many Californians were angered because 61 percent of them had already approved a ballot measure restricting marriage to one man, one woman.

Now gay marriage forces are back, working the halls of California's capitol for Assembly Bill 19 (AB19), that would legalize same-sex marriages.

Randy Thomasson's Campaign for Children and Families is trying to kill the bill before it even goes to hearings in March or April. He is furious at the Democrats for supporting it.

Thomasson said, "AB 19 would impose homosexual marriage licenses throughout the state of California. How dare they exercise this arrogant power to trash the vote of the people, to desecrate marriage and to send a horrible role model to the children? It's outrageous, and we're encouraging everybody in our state to rise up and say no to this bill and yes to marriage."

Thousands of Californians are taking up the fight, gathering at rallies like one in Madera, a small town in California's Central Valley.

Mary Robinson said she was there to support traditional families. "We all know that they're the basis of our society,” she said, “and we gotta keep the family strong, and this would ruin it."

Mike McMillan helped bring his church's choir to the rally. He said, "Gay marriage is not natural. The plumbing isn't even right."

McMillan added, "It really fired me up to see the mayor of San Francisco going out and performing marriage ceremonies himself, and just in-your-face type thing in defiance of the law of California."

Darla Davis of Riverdale, California said, "It is the foundation of our whole nation to have a family: mother and father with children. And I've worked in a Christian school for 26 years, and I'm well aware of the difference in the children when they don't have a mother and a father in the home."

These folks were also here to back an amendment that would permanently enshrine in the state constitution marriage as legal for only one man, one woman.

Robinson said, "I'm a grandmother, and I love our country, and I want to see it stay the way it's always been."

Doug Spencer, of Avenal, California remarked, "The homosexual community -- their one tool is recruitment, and that's what they want, is the right to recruit. And I'm very much against that. I believe it's against the Word of God and I want to stand up for what's right, and I think the church has been silent much too long."

Seven protestors showed up at the rally, some resentful of the tone taken by conservatives there.

Lisa Solomon says she expects the fight over a marriage amendment will get ugly. "They're equating homosexuality with Satan.in essence, they're telling us that we are evil and we are wrong and we are not human, she said. “And in essence, we are not on an equal footing with them. And emotionally that's very hurtful, because the religion and faith I grew up with, and the faith I hold now tells me that's not true."

But Solomon's ally Jason Scott says he thinks gay marriage will win out.

Scott said, "We move forward every year, so I think it's just inevitable that it's going to happen in California."

And Thomasson believes California's fight over gay marriage will affect the entire nation. "When one out of eight Americans live in California, you know this is the biggest gorilla that influences everyone else," he said.

Scott's on the other side, but basically agrees with Thomasson's analysis. He commented, "We are a state that starts things out and others will follow."

Thomasson goes to rallies like the Madera one trying to get Californians to pressure Democratic lawmakers to drop their efforts to legalize gay marriage. He says his mission isn't name it and claim it, but name it and blame it. "...to blame the Democrat politicians,” Thomasson said. “And they'll drop the bill if they think this issue is hurting their party."

And while the effort to kill that pro-gay marriage bill goes on, so will the fight to amend California's constitution to preserve traditional marriage.

Davis said, "I have children and expect one day to have grandchildren, and I want them to have the sanctity of marriage between a man and a wife."

McMillan said, "There're co-habitation laws, there're consenting laws. They can do those things if they want to. But when they come over and they're changing the basic value of marriage in our country. It's going too far."

This measure has a long way to go before it actually ends up on the ballot, but with California being the nation's most populous state, if it passes here, it could have a huge influence on the Defend Marriage movement.