California gay marriage bill revived
Laura Kurtzman, Knight Ridder News / San Jose Mercury News
July 13, 2005

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The effort to win marriage rights for gay couples in California was given new life Tuesday when a Senate committee approved it on a party-line vote.

The bill, by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, died last month in the Assembly, after falling four votes short of a majority. But Leno revived it in the Senate, where the bill is expected to pass - and is optimistic he can muster enough support in the Assembly.

Since his earlier defeat, Leno has won an endorsement by the United Farm Workers, which could provide cover for moderate Latino members who have been reluctant to vote in favor of an issue that is widely unpopular in their community. And on Tuesday, the city of Los Angeles passed a measure on Tuesday endorsing gay marriage.

But the reappearance of the gay marriage issue also mobilized dozens of impassioned opponents, most of whom identified themselves as members of church organizations.

Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which opposes gay marriage, said the measure's revival was encouraging people to sign petitions to qualify a ballot measure that would create a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

"The Democrat politicians' intolerant attack upon marriage will backfire," he said in a statement after the vote. "Californians are quickly learning that the Democratic Party has become the party of homosexual `marriage.'"

Leno testified in support of his bill sitting next to the Rev. Tauoa Head, of the United Church of Christ, which recently endorsed the idea of gay marriage. Head urged the committee members to vote in favor of the bill, saying, "You will never regret this."

The two Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee were subdued. Sen. Dick Ackerman, D-Irvine, did not comment during the hearing and Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, limited his critique to procedural questions.

He said Californians had already decided the gay marriage issue by passing Proposition 22 in 2000, a bill that prohibited California from recognizing same-sex marriages conducted in other states.

"In Proposition 22, the people of California collectively spoke," he said. "It would be better to take this issue to the people if you're trying to change Proposition 22."

However, that measure was recently overturned by a lower court, and Democrats said they felt it was their duty to lead on the gay marriage issue.

"Sometimes the people are wrong," said Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles.

Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, said she planned to tell her grandchildren that she had voted for the bill.

And Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, who is one of three lesbians in the senate, gave a quietly indignant speech in which she said those who opposed the bill were discriminating against gays.

"I think this is the civil rights issue of the day," she said, as her cheeks reddened with anger. "I do not feel protected by the marriage laws of California, because I can't marry anyone I love."

Leno's bill, now known as AB 849, is expected to pass the Senate next month and then go to the Assembly in late August or early September.

When the bill came to a vote last month, 37 of the Assembly's Democrats voted for it, five voted against it and six abstained or were absent.

But Leno said Tuesday he now needs only three votes - not four - to pass it out of the Assembly. He said one member - Merve Dymally, D-Compton - voted for it at one point but was absent for the final vote.

Leno said he expected he would gain momentum after the bill passes the Senate and cited recent events, including the legalization of gay marriage in Canada and Spain and the acceptance by the United Church of Christ.

"Since the last vote on the Assembly side, we've picked up the endorsement of the United Farm Workers, the city of Los Angeles, the United Church of Christ, the nations of Canada and Spain," he said. "That's a lot to happen in just a few weeks."