Posted on 01/14/2004 12:42:48 AM PST by calcowgirl
SACRAMENTO - A bill meant to create a memorial to gay veterans cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday after changes were made in it designed to neutralize past opposition.
If the legislation succeeds, a memorial candidate would be the obelisk at Desert Memorial Park cemetery in Cathedral City. The obelisk, built with private funds in 2001, is believed to the only memorial in California that honors gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender veterans.
"The governor said in his State of the State speech that he didn't want to preside over the decline of California, but that he wanted to preside over the renewal and a new dream here in California," said Tom Swann of Palm Springs, who helped plan the Coachella Valley memorial and traveled to Sacramento to testify Tuesday. "I have a dream that every veteran will be honored and their sacrifices not forgotten."
The measure, AB 1520, passed the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee, which blocked the legislation last spring.
A year ago, the bill was tailored solely to designating a gay veterans memorial. Some veterans groups complained that such a memorial would insult the sacrifice of all veterans.
This year, though, the bill's author, Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, seemed to win over critics by expanding the bill's purview. The measure calls for creating a commission that would consider state memorials for any class of veterans, such as women.
Yet it was clear Tuesday that the legislation's top goal remains the creation of a California gay veterans memorial. "I think there are a lot of gay veterans who are organized, and I think there's a lot of pent-up demand. Gay veterans want to make a statement," Kehoe said.
The only opposition to the bill came from committee Republicans. Assemblyman Dick Mountjoy, R-Monrovia, said, "It separates us as Americans when we identify what we are."
Gov. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has not taken a position on the bill, his office said.
Reach Jim Miller at (916) 445-9973 or jmiller@pe.com
An upright phallic symbol portruding into the heavens - how fitting.
Homosexuals want to make more than a statement. They want more than toleration of their behavior. They want complete and full acceptance of their behavior. A behavior stemming from environment in the home, a behavior that can be changed, and if the behavior isn't changed, severe health hazards will result.
Erecting monuments to homosexuals is just another nail in civilization's coffin.
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