City-State Showdown Brewing Over Gay Marriage

Reuters ^ | Sat February 21, 2004

[demlosers]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's attorney general will go to court as soon as possible to defend a state law defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman, a spokeswoman said on Saturday. A lawsuit could pit the state against the city of San Francisco, which has sanctioned thousands of same-sex weddings since just before the Feb. 14 Valentine's Day weekend.

"We think it's very important to have this issue resolved as quickly as possible for the people of California, as well as for the couples who have obtained these marriage licenses," Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for a Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said. "We're going to court as soon as possible to defend state law."

On Friday, the state's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped up his rhetoric against gay weddings, sending Lockyer, a Democrat, a letter ordering him to take "immediate steps" to end same-sex matrimony.

A second Superior Court judge had refused on Friday to halt the weddings, authorized by newly-elected San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Gay weddings have been a hot-button U.S. political issue in recent weeks. Besides the weddings in San Francisco, the highest court in Massachusetts issued a ruling compelling the state to recognize marriages between homosexuals.

Some conservatives have said that Republican President Bush, who is running for re-election this year, will push to amend the U.S. constitution to ban gay marriage. Sen. John Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to run against Bush, is from Massachusetts.

Lockyer has 30 days to respond to Schwarzenegger's directive, released during California's Republican Party Convention last night, Jordan said.

He will argue that San Francisco's actions violate California's Proposition 22, which state voters approved in 2000 defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman, she added.

City officials have not yet decided how they would respond to a potential lawsuit, although San Francisco sued the state on Thursday saying the marriage law violated the California constitution.

"To the best of my knowledge the state hasn't initiated litigation," said Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for city attorney Dennis Herrera. "It's premature to comment."

There have been almost 3,200 gay marriages performed in San Francisco since Feb. 12.

[Indy Pendance]

They can marry the opposite sex just like anyone else, no rights have ever been denied.

[XHogPilot]

can I go to California and marry myself?

Think of the taxes you'd save by filing a joint return!

[Devil_Anse]

I understand your frustration, but hey, are these people's clownish antics really worth endangering even one law enforcement officer's safety? Why not simply require each of the couples who played at getting married to pay for a divorce, if they get tired of playing "let's pretend" and want to go back to the promiscuous ways which are typical of many homosexual people? Yes--a divorce, complete with lawyers' fees, property division, community property issues, custody issues (for those among them who are parents), etc., etc.

[angkor]

Why not simply require each of the couples who played at getting married to pay for a divorce

Well, ummmm, because they're not really married under California law.

[JamesA]

As America rapidly slips down the slippery slope to moral decay and eventual destruction. I would predict there is going to be a outbreak in gay bashing with extreme prejudice by people who are fed up with having the homo's agenda shoved at them. Too bad so sad, a matter of choice.

[Devil_Anse]

But THEY say they are!!!

So how come they can pick and choose which rules and responsibilities apply to them, but the rest of us can't??