CA Marriage Equality Passes Key Committe Vote

April 27, 2005

SACRAMENTO — Legislation to allow same-sex marriage in California passed a key committee Tuesday with religious conservatives vowing to defeat it before it can become law.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee passed the bill 5-3, with one panel member not voting. The bill now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for financial review.

The committee room was packed with supporters and opponents of the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act.

It is expected the bill will have little trouble clearing the committee. The measure passed the same committee in the last session, but its author, Assemblymember Mark Leno ( D-San Francisco) pulled it when it appeared there was not enough support to ensure passage on the floor of the Assembly.

The new bill is identical to last year's effort but Leno now has the support of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and other key Democrats. Earlier this month the California Democratic Party passed a resolution supporting same-sex marriage.

Support has grown steadily over the past year, Leno said.

Alice Huffman, President of the California NAACP, told the committee that California cannot have an honest discussion about civil rights without talking about LGBT rights. Earlier this month the NAACP its support for same-sex marriage.

The committee also heard to from same-sex couples and how they and their families are impacted by the inability to marry.

But, conservatives say they will do all they can to defeat the measure.

Speaking against it today was Dr. Lynn Wardle, the Brigham Young University law professor who drafted Proposition 22 - California's 2000 ballot initiative aimed at reserving marriage for a man and a woman.

Wardle told the committee that Leno's bill was unconstitutional because it would take a referendum to overturn Prop. 22.

Leno and supporters of the bill maintain Prop. 22 only bars the state from recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages.

Randy Thomasson, president of the California Campaign for Families also spoke out against the legislation. Thomasson's group is also involved in the court battle over same-sex marriage.

So far, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sent mixed messages about whether he would sign the legislation if it were passed.

In a January meeting with the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle Schwarzenegger suggested that this may not be the best time to push gay marriage, saying that a legislative push to fully recognize marriage rights for gays might backfire.

Eventually in a few years from now, you can readdress it again and see what the people of California think, he told the paper. You cannot force-feed those kind of things.

Last year in a Tonight Show appearance Schwarzenegger said gay marriage would be fine with me if it were enshrined in state law or ruled legal by the courts.