PING! 
Your One Stop Resource For All The California Recall News!
Want on our daily or major news ping lists? Freepmail DoctorZin.
Posted on 09/04/2003 12:06:10 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
California Gray Davis, facing an almost certain recall next month, has a chance to make history before he goes.
Legislation landing on his desk today would give "domestic partners" many of the same legal rights as married couples – a bill many opponents said was tantamount to approving homosexual marriages.
In a heated debate in the Assembly, critics argued the legislation violates the will of state voters who approved Proposition 22, a 2000 ballot measure that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
"This is homosexual marriage lite," said one Sacramento Democrat insider who opposed the measure approved by the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
The 41-32 vote in the Assembly approved Senate amendments to a bill removing a provision that would have allowed domestic partners to file their state income taxes jointly – one of the few distinctions left between married couples and California's "domestic partners" should the bill be signed into law.
"May the wrath of the people of California come down on you," another opponent, Assemblyman Jay La Suer, R-Mesa, told the measure's supporters.
The last speaker, homosexual Assemblyman Mark Leno, Democrat of San Francisco, publicly thanked gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger for supporting domestic partnerships and challenged Republican lawmakers who support Schwarzenegger to also support AB 205. He had no takers.
Davis has said he would sign the bill into law.
The bill is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2005. It would give domestic partners the ability to get child support and alimony, the right to health coverage under a partner's plan and the power to make funeral arrangements for a partner.
Other provisions would give domestic partners access to family student housing, bereavement and family-care leave and exemptions from estate and gift taxes, and in the event of a partner's death, the authority to consent to an autopsy and donate organs.
Like spouses, domestic partners would not be forced to testify against each other in a trial. They could also apply for absentee ballots on a partner's behalf.
In fact, here's what the legislation says: "Registered domestic partners shall have the same rights, protections, and benefits, and shall be subject to the same responsibilities, obligations, and duties under law, whether they derive from statutes, administrative regulations, court rules, government policies, common law, or any other provisions or sources of law, as are granted to and imposed upon spouses."
Elsewhere it reiterates: "This act shall be construed liberally in order to secure to eligible couples who register as domestic partners the full range of legal rights, protections and benefits, as well as all of the other responsibilities, obligations, and duties to each other, to their children, to third parties and to the state, as the laws of California extend to and impose upon spouses."
"This is a day that will be remembered with anger and disgust," said Randy Thomasson, executive director of Campaign for California Families, the statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan family issues leadership organization that led the grass-roots effort against the bill. "AB 205 utterly rejects the vote of the people of California – 4.6 million white, black, Latino and Asian voters who demanded that the rights, privileges and benefits of marriage be protected for a man and a woman, as it should be. The Democrat politicians who jammed this through have proved they are against marriage and against democracy. They have created gay 'marriage' by another name and utterly rejected the vote of the people. This will go to court as an unconstitutional hijacking of the people's vote to protect marriage with Proposition 22."
The legislation, by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, also places marriage-like responsibilities on domestic partners. They would be responsible for their partner's debts, would have their income factored into their partner's eligibility for public assistance benefits, and would be required to disclose their relationships to avoid nepotism and conflicts of interest.
In 1999, California became the first state in the country to allow homosexual and lesbian couples, as well as unmarried heterosexual couples, to register as domestic partners. Since then more than 22,000 couples have signed up for the privilege.
The initial floor vote was 41 Democrats supporting AB 205, 31 Republicans and one Democrat, Nicole Parra of Bakersfield, opposing AB 205. Abstaining were Republican Shirley Horton of San Diego and Democrats Ed Chavez of La Puente, Jerome Horton of Inglewood, Barbara Matthews of Stockton and Sarah Reyes of Fresno.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.