Campaign to maintain traditional marriage to stop by Escondido
Bruce Kauffman, North County Times
February 19, 2005 

ESCONDIDO -- A Sacramento-based group called "Campaign for Children and Families" is scheduled to bring its 15-city tour of California to Escondido Saturday as it spreads the word about defeating a bill that would recognize marriage between "two persons" and drop the specification that they be a man and a woman.

The campaign has scheduled what it calls a news conference for 10 a.m. outside the Del Dios Middle School, 1400 W. Ninth St. in Escondido.

On the road since Valentine's Day on Monday, the campaign has been working to defeat AB 19, a bill filed Dec. 6 in the state Assembly that would enact the "Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act" and provide that marriage is a "personal relation arising out of a civil contract between two persons," in the language of the legislative counsel.

In an interview by phone Friday, campaign President Randy Thomasson said that passage of the bill would contravene the wishes of the voters when they passed Proposition 22 on March 7, 2000.

By a 60 percent to 40 percent margin, marriage in California was effectively defined as a union between a man and a woman under the proposition, Thomasson said. Voters in both San Diego and Riverside counties favored Prop. 22.

Thomasson said the bill in the Legislature has the support of 25 Democrats from both the Senate and the Assembly, including Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. The campaign's Web site said passage would "push San Francisco-style 'homosexual marriage licenses' in every community for every child to see."

As for choosing the middle school as the venue for the conference, Thomasson said the setting would underscore the implications for children if the bill passes. "If we have homosexual marriage legalized in California, it will affect the curriculum because students will be taught to honor homosexual marriage," he said.

"We care about children, we care about marriage and family and we care about the democratic process, which is the will of the people," Thomasson said.

The Assembly on Jan. 6 referred the bill to the Judiciary Committee.

Thomasson said his tour of the state, including stops in Oakland and San Jose but not San Francisco, has encountered little in the way of gay rights demonstrators. The campaign is scheduled to hold a second conference at noon today outside the county administration building at 1600 Pacific Highway, in San Diego.