Posted on 09/07/2005 6:06:36 PM PDT by SmithL
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday that he will veto a bill seeking to allow gay marriages in California.
Schwarzenegger said the legislation, given final approval Tuesday by lawmakers, would conflict with the intent of voters when they approved Proposition 22. That measure was put on the ballot in 2000 to prevent California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
"We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote," the governor's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. "Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto (the bill)."
Despite his promise to veto the bill, Schwarzenegger "believes gay couples are entitled to full protection under the law and should not be discriminated against based upon their relationship."
"He is proud that California provides the most rigorous protections in the nation for domestic partners," the statement said.
The Republican governor had indicated in previous statements that he would veto the bill, saying the debate over same-sex marriage should be decided by voters or the courts.
A state appeals court is weighing an appeal of a San Francisco judge's ruling striking down state laws barring gay marriages. Meanwhile, opponents of same-sex marriages are planning measures on the ballot next year that would place a ban on gay marriages in the state constitution.
The announcement dampened a celebratory mood among the bill's supporters, who only the night before cheered, hugged and kissed as the state Assembly narrowly sent the bill to the governor's desk.
Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, had called bans on gay marriage "the last frontier of bigotry and discrimination."
The bill passed the Legislature through the persistence of its sponsors, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. His original bill had failed in the Assembly by four votes in June, but he then amended it to another bill in the Senate, which voted to approve it last week.
It was that amended bill the Assembly passed by a bare majority on Tuesday. Four Democrats who did not vote on the bill in June provided the winning margin this week.
The vote made the California Legislature the first legislative body in the country to approve of same-sex marriage. Gay marriage licenses in Massachusetts and civil unions in Vermont were granted through court rulings.
Arnie's no girlie-man!
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Which means he'll win. He's positioned himself to run against the looney legislature, and people may be primed to give him a sizeable mandate.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
"We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote," the governor's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. "Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto (the bill)."
Does anyone have any doubt that the maggot Davis would have signed this bill as soon as it hit his desk?
You mean he's going to queer the deal cooked up by the left-gay alliance?
Yep. He'd might as well run as a democrat if he let this abomination succeed.
Gee...sorry about that sodomites.
Bustamental would have signed it also!
Bustamenta would have carried the bill around for its approval and voted for it immediately.
Or that he is simply doing what he was elected to do.
Bump for Arnold.
McClintock is running for Lt. Governor next year, so we may have both of them in Sacramento!
One is marriage. One isn't.
As they have indeed been doing for the past several years. There are two more in the pipeline, now. Hopefully, Arnold will veto these as well. Today's action should be lauded, but the fight has only begun, IMO. A lot of damage has already been done.
San Diego Union-Tribune, September 2, 2005
The state passed its first domestic partnership law in 1999 and then broadened it in 2003. The law grants registered same-sex couples many of the rights and responsibilities of marriage, including child-custody rights and obligations. Some partnerships have to be dissolved in family courts.San Diego Union-Tribune, August 30, 2005California's Supreme Court also ruled last month that same-sex parents have the same rights and obligations as other parents.
Officials from Equality California also expect the Legislature to pass a bill by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, that would extend death benefits to partners of public employees who retired before the domestic partnership law was expanded this year to include death benefits.Under the legislation, Senate Bill 973, a retired public employee's partner could elect to have death benefits equivalent to those of a spouse if the partner can prove he or she was in a partnership with the public employee.
Last year, Equality California sponsored several bills to end discrimination, including one that required any insurance company that covered spouses in its policies to also cover domestic partners, and another that toughened hate-crime laws.
All those bills were signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the group said. The governor did, however, veto legislation that would have set up a commission that would look into building a war memorial to gay and lesbian veterans.
Go Governator!
Sent an email supporting the governor on this. I'm so glad to see him decide so fast!
Would Gray Davis have vetoed this bill?
Thousands of years -the history of mankind thus far is not -short term vicory... Even if juducial fiat temporary creates law or the will of the people is somehow subverted --homosexual 'marriage' will never be respected and always be recognized as nothing but what it is meaningless window dressing attempting to noralize the abnormal -the perverse -the depraved...
The homosexual activists suffer from short term delusion... You suffer from bad perspective -the glass is half full...
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