State Senate approves same-sex marriage bill
Josh Richman, Oakland Tribune
September 2, 2005

The California state Senate on Thursday became the nation's first legislative body ever to approve full-fledged same-sex marriage, voting 21-15 to pass a Bay Area lawmaker's bill.

Supporters hailed it as a historic, inexorable step toward equality, with some gathering late Thursday at San Francisco's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center to share a wedding cake. Opponents decried it as the Democrats' attack on the people's will and family values, and they vowed to ensure its goal never becomes reality.

AB 849 by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would change state law's marriage definition from a civil contract "between a manand a woman" to "between two persons." Clergy opposed to same-sex marriage wouldn't be forced to solemnize such vows.

The emotionally charged bill now goes to the Assembly with one week remaining before 2005's legislative deadline. Lobbying will reach fever pitch in coming days, with supporters calling it an issue of basic civil rights, and opponents calling it an issue of basic civic morality.

"It'll be 24/7 between now and the end of the session next week, both sides will be in full gear," Equality California Executive Director Geoffrey Kors said Thursday, adding that senators had put doing the right thing ahead of political expediency.

"Every Democrat who's planning on leaving the Senate and running for statewide office made a point of speaking in favor of the bill. ... These are the people the right wing had targeted," he said. "Obviously, they saw the tide of history, and the tide of history always goes toward equality."

The California Family Council on Wednesday had asked the public to urge six specific senators to oppose the bill. Four voted for the bill, and two abstained.The vote was along party lines except for Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who sided with the GOP against the bill.

Randy Thomasson, founder and president of the Campaign for California Families, issued a statement urging Californians to rise up and urge Assembly members to oppose the bill.

"How can God bless California when our lawmakers do this?" he asked. "The Democrat-controlled Senate has completely overturned the people's vote on marriage. They're violating the state constitution, which specifically prohibits the Legislature from repealing voter-approved initiatives!"

Leno denies his bill runs afoul of Proposition 22 of 2000, a statutory ban on recognition of same-sex marriage approved by 61 percent of voters. That measure's 14-word dictum was chaptered as Family Code Section 308.5, but Section 308 reads, "A marriage contracted outside this state that would be valid by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the marriage was contracted is valid in this state." Leno said Proposition 22 only modified this section, and so only applies to marriages solemnized outside California.

Leno noted 19 Democrats stood to speak in the bill's favor before Thursday's vote, while only two Republicans spoke against it. "I don't think that they're necessarily as proud of their position as the Democrats were of theirs."

The bill fell four votes short of Assembly passage June 2. Hoping Senate approval would embolden his peers, Leno gutted and amended an unrelated bill to put same-sex marriage before the Senate, leading to Thursday's victory.

Leno and Equality California — aided by the United Farm Workers' late-June endorsement and active organizing on the bill's behalf — are leaning heavily on wavering Assembly members, especially Latinos who share with constituents faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage. Conservatives are focusing on these same lawmakers.

Leno said his big Assembly push will focus on Democrats who abstained from June's vote.

If the Assembly passes the bill, it will go to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who hasn't taken a position on it yet.

Supporters want him to view the Legislature's vote as representing the people's will and hew to his promise to honor such will. Opponents want him to view this bill as overriding the people's will as expressed by Proposition 22.

Schwarzenegger's decision on this already controversial issue takes on added political dimension: His popularity is at an all-time low, his ballot measures are flagging two months before his special election, and a gubernatorial election looms in 2006.

Three proposed state constitutional amendments now collecting petition signatures for placement on the June 2006 ballot would overrule the law Leno is trying to pass and would render moot a lawsuit — now pending before the state Court of Appeal — challenging the constitutionality of state's existing statutory ban on same-sex marriage. Voters in 18 states have approved such amendments; five more states already have scheduled votes in 2005 and 2006.

A Sacramento judge Thursday agreed with Attorney General Bill Lockyer and LGBT groups that the official petition summary for the amendment put forth by Thomasson and others must clearly explain that it would eliminate benefits, rights and responsibilities now granted under state domestic partnership laws.

"This corrupt deed by state legislators will energize voters to sign the http://www.VoteYesMarriage.com petition a month from now, to protect marriage rights for one man and one woman once and for all," Thomasson predicted in his statement Thursday. Kors disagreed.

"If they think this vote helps them so much, they sure spent a whole lot of resources fighting it," he said, noting similar backlash predictions made against domestic partnership laws never proved true.

"The sky hasn't fallen and the earth hasn't shook as they'd claimed it would."

"They've cried 'wolf' a lot of times and they've failed every time. We're committed to making sure they'll fail again."