Good news, for now. But, I fear, they won't stop trying!
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A bill to legalize gay marriage in California died Thursday after it failed to gain the simple majority needed to pass the state Assembly.
In the second and final time in two days before the 80-member house, the tally was four votes shy of a majority.
Nearly a quarter of majority Democrats either joined Republicans in opposing the bill or chose not to take a stand on the hot-button topic, now headed for likely showdowns in the state's courts and at the ballot box.
"Voting for this bill may erode the advances we have made," said Gloria Negrete McLeod, a Democrat who abstained despite a previous record that gay rights advocates considered friendly to their cause. "It's a shame we get into these things where we become so politicized and polarized."
While it took a court order for Massachusetts last year to become the first state to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples, gay rights advocates had looked to California to be the first Legislature to do so voluntarily.
The bill would have amended the state family code to define marriage between "two persons" instead of between a man and a woman.
Supporters expressed disappointment with Thursday's outcome but said the floor vote nonetheless represented a historic event for the gay rights movement.
"We had people who were adamantly against it last year who were speaking adamantly in favor of it on the floor," said Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, a supporter of the bill. "This was progress even though it's not enough."
Lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of California's marriage laws are likely to wind up before the state's Supreme Court within the next year.
Opponents of gay marriage also have begun the process to put a constitutional amendment before voters that would ban gay nuptials and strip gay couples of domestic partnership benefits. They hope to get the initiative on the June 2006 ballot.
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