Posted on 06/02/2005 8:22:49 PM PDT by coffeebreak
... pass the California Assembly on its first vote Wednesday evening, and it failed to pass on a second vote early Thursday morning. Conservative opponents of the bill called the development "very encouraging."
AB 19 would delete "a man and a woman" from California marriage laws, defining marriage as the union of "two persons."
The bill fell six votes short of passage on Wednesday and the same thing happened hours later, early Thursday morning. Both times, the vote was 37-35, as five Democrats joined all 32 Republicans in opposing AB 19. Eight Democrats abstained.
"This is a tentative victory you can feel good about," said the Campaign for Children and Families, a traditional values group that has lobbied long and hard against AB 19.
CCF says this is no time to rest, however; it is urging conservatives to keep up the pressure on lawmakers, especially reluctant Democrats, since the bill may come up again in the next day or two.
Supporters hoped this would be the first time that the people's elected representatives approved same-sex marriage. In Massachusetts, it took a court order to make such marriages reality.
But opponents of same-sex marriage say A.B. 19 subverts the will of California voters, who passed a ballot initiative five years ago saying, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
On Wednesday, California Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a lesbian Los Angeles Democrat, rejected arguments that she can't marry her longtime partner.
"Unless you are willing to look me in the face and say I'm not a human being just like you [heterosexuals] are, you have no right to deny me marriage in the state of California or anywhere else," wire reports quoted Goldberg as saying.
Million dollars by Labor Day
In a separate development on the same-sex marriage front, two homosexual advocacy groups have announced a million-dollar fundraising goal to fight a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships in California.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign announced earlier this week that they would donate up to $100,000 each - if leaders of California's "progressive" organizations can raise $800,000.
According to a press release, the $200,000 challenge grant is the first large financial commitment to the newly launched Equality for All Coalitio - an alliance of more than 200 religious, labor and civil rights organizations from throughout California.
That coalition will lead the campaign to defeat the proposed marriage amendment, which is expected to be on California's June 2006 ballot.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said defeating the "discriminatory" amendment is a matter of "ensuring equality for all California families."
"We know that it's going to take a huge amount of money and intense organizing to defeat this hurtful and immoral initiative," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
"We are confident that if we can get the truth out about this extreme anti-gay, anti-single parent, anti-family amendment, California voters will reject it," said Geoffrey Kors, executive director of Equality California. Kors said the "generous challenge" from the Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign will help mobilize opposition.
"The fight against the proposed constitutional amendment is going to be a tough one," said Lorri L. Jean, chief executive officer of the L.A. Gay Lesbian Center. "We've lost in the past because our opponents have been better organized and better funded that we were, and they got started earlier."
Jean said national support "is the leverage we need to go toe-to-toe with the anti-gay forces who would deny us our equal rights."
People who engage in homosexual behavior don't want 'equal rights', they want 'special rights'.
They either expect some third party to give them kids, or they lacked the commitment to a previous marriage that produced kids. From day 1, that child is deprived of a mother or a father. That's not right.
I could easily look her in the face and say: "Yes, you're human, but a sick, perverted, human, and you have no right to spread that sickness via codified marriage."
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
yes you are asking for special treatment and no you shouldn't get it
Goldberg is a human being and as such has EXACTLY the same right I or any other person has to marry--no greater, and no less. That's equality.
Goldberg wants something more. Goldberg wants to pursue a sexual perversion and have the government force me to recognize and accept it on the same terms as a heterosexual marriage.
That is a demand for special rights, not equal rights.
You're lower than an animal Ms. Goldberg...
She and every other sodomite have the exact same right to marry someone of the same sex that I have.
Which is to say none.
I would suggest to poster #6 that he see a psychiatrist but homosexuals have already gotten to them. The APA now supports homosexual marriage.
That's exactly right. Tell them that, and they cite miscegnation laws. That, in turns, annoys and angers most blacks who know full well and first hand that the comparison is forced and invalid.
As is observable by inspection (although I fear for the "inspector").
I sure hope you're right but the problem won't really be over until a ban on homosexual marriage and civil unions is part of the U.S. Constitution. Homosexuals/Pedophiles and their supporters are very bad people. They won't give up until they have to.
Pics of the witch below. I am a firm believer in Rush's thesis about lesbianism and looks. Then again, I am also a believer in that fact that someone's appeal is based on their character and their heart, not just raw physical features. Such is the case with Miss Goldberg.
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