California senate passes gay marriage bill!!!
Huzzah!! It's up to Arnie now, and I'm interested to see what he does since he's been so vague when he is asked about his stand on this issue. I, for one, am THRILLED. I called up my best friend this morning and told him he HAD to check out the front page of the paper. He was so excited. :) :)
Here are a couple of articles about it...
http://uk.gay.com/headlines/8971
The California Senate became the first legislative chamber in the country to approve a bill legalising same-sex marriage by a vote of 21-15. The historic move was hailed by gay rights advocates across the United States.
"This is a bill whose time has come," said Democrat Senator Sheila Kuehl, one of six gay members of the state Senate.
"Gay and lesbian people fall in love. We settle down. We commit our lives to one another. We raise our children. We protect them. We try to be good citizens," she said in a quote published by the Associated Press (AP).
"This is probably the most profound civil rights movement of our generation, without a doubt," said Senator Jackie Speier.
"Equality is equality, period," said Senator Liz Figueroa. "When I leave this Legislature, I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I stood up for dignity and rights for all," she said in a quote published by the AP.
But Republican Senator Dennis Hollingsworth claimed that a "higher power" opposed the legislation. "This is not the right thing to do," he said. "We should protect traditional marriage and hold all of those values and institutions that have made our society and keep our society together today."
The bill, known as the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, was originally introduced last December by Democrat Assemblyman Mark Leno.
After his original measure failed in the Assembly by four votes in June, he gutted a piece of approved legislation and replaced it with his marriage bill.
According to the bill's summary, "Assembly Bill (AB) 849 redefines marriage in California as a union between two persons, making it gender-neutral and thereby permitting same-sex marriages in the state. It does not, however, require any clergy or religious official to solemnise any marriage in violation of his/her right to free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the California Constitution."
"Today represents another milestone toward the fulfilment of the American dream for thousands of lesbian and gay couples in California," stated Assemblyman Leno.
"Society is strongest when it upholds the basic civil rights of all its citizens, including the right to marry the person you love."
Several LGBT organisations praised the actions of California's Senate.
"It will make all California families safer and more secure if it becomes law," said Seth Kilbourn, director of the Human Rights Campaign Marriage Project in New York. "The fact they debated and voted on this relatively quickly today sends a message that there is momentum for this bill."
"The actions of Democrats ensured this victory for California families," said Eric Stern, executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats, noting that every Republican voted against the bill. "The Democratic Party in California has displayed its strength by demonstrating its commitment to the family."
Geoff Kors, the executive director of Equality California, the organisation that sponsored the same-sex marriage bill, told the GAY.COM/PlanetOut Network his organisation was now focusing its lobby effort in the Assembly, where the bill will soon be debated.
"What was so powerful today was that the senators who voted for the bill have districts which overlap with Assembly members who voted against it the last time it was debated," Kors said on Thursday.
"We're going to continue to work around the clock to get the votes we need for next week's vote," Kors said, noting the California Legislature faces a September 9 deadline for getting bills to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk.
"The governor has said he won't make any decision until the bill gets there. He has said that he is fine with marriage for gay and lesbian couples. In his heart he opposes discrimination," Kors said.
"Whatever he does will be an enormous part of his legacy. We hope and believe he will want history to judge him being on the right side of this civil rights struggle."
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...n115408D69.DTL
Handing gay rights advocates a major victory, the California Senate approved legislation Thursday that would legalize same-sex marriages in the nation's most populous state.
The 21-15 vote made the Senate the first legislative chamber in the country to approve a gay marriage bill. It sets the stage for a showdown in the state Assembly, which narrowly rejected a gay marriage bill in June.
"Equality is equality, period," said one of the bill's supporters, Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Sunol. "When I leave this Legislature, I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I stood up for dignity and rights for all."
But Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-La Mesa, suggested that a "higher power" opposed the legislation.
"This is not the right thing to do," he said. "We should protect traditional marriage and uphold all of those values and institutions that have made our society and keep our society together today."
But Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, said a number of churches supported the bill: "I don't think anyone should claim God as being on their side in this debate," she said.
California already confers many of the rights and duties of marriage on gay couples, who can register as domestic partners. Massachusetts became the first state to recognize gay marriages when the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex weddings there in 2003.
Several senators equated the struggle for gay marriage to other civil rights movements. They said arguments against the bill were similar to earlier arguments in support of slavery and opposing interracial marriage.
"This is probably the most profound civil rights movement of our generation, without a doubt," said Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough.
Gay rights advocates called Thursday's California vote historic.
"It will make all California families safer and more secure if it becomes law," said Seth Kilbourn, director of the Human Rights Campaign Marriage Project in New York. "The fact they debated and voted on this relatively quickly today sends a message that there is momentum for this bill."
Senate approval gave the bill's author, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, another chance to send the legislation to the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Legislature is expected to adjourn its 2005 session next week.
Leno said he planned to bring up the bill on Tuesday in the Assembly and predicted that the Senate vote would help sway undecided lawmakers in his house.
"We are so very close," he said in an interview after the Senate vote. "It would be very disappointing for this body not to be able to stand up for civil rights."
After the Assembly rejected his bill in June by four votes, Leno amended the measure's provisions into another one of his bills that had already passed the Assembly and was awaiting action in the Senate. That's the bill the Senate approved Thursday and sent back to the Assembly for a vote on Senate amendments.
Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said the office would not comment about how the governor would act if the bill is sent to his desk.
"The governor believes that the people spoke when they passed Proposition 22, and now it went to the courts and that's where it should be," she said. "The governor will abide by what the courts rule."
She added that Schwarzenegger does support domestic partnerships.
Proposition 22 was approved by California voters in 2000. The initiative added a section to the state Family Code stating that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
It was put on the ballot when it appeared that Hawaii might legalize gay marriages and was intended to prevent California from recognizing gay marriages performed elsewhere.
Leno's bill would amend a separate section of state law that bars the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in California.
Sen. Sheila Kuehl, one of six gay members of the state Legislature, told the chamber that gay couples have the same hopes for their relationships as heterosexual couples.
"Gay and lesbian people fall in love. We settle down. We commit our lives to one another. We raise our children. We protect them. We try to be good citizens," said Kuehl, D-Santa Monica. "This is a bill whose time has come."
Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, agreed that gay couples are entitled to certain rights but not the right to marry.
"Can't you see that marriage is a fundamentally different institution?" he said. "Marriage is the institution by which we propagate our species and inculcate our young."
The vote came as a state appellate court is considering appeals of a San Francisco judge's ruling that overturned California laws banning recognition of gay marriages. At the same time, opponents of same-sex marriage are trying to qualify initiatives for the 2006 ballot that would place a ban on gay marriages in the state Constitution.
Andrew Pugno, legal adviser to one of the two groups trying to qualify such an amendment, called the Senate vote an insult to the majority of California voters who approved Proposition 22.
"The people can speak once and for all by elevating the definition of marriage to the state Constitution, he said.
