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Gay Marriage One Step Closer in California
Senators in the Golden State go further in passing a same-sex marriage bill than any other state legislature has gone.
The California Senate on Wednesday became the first chamber of any legislature in the country to approve homosexual marriage.
Senators, on a 21-15 vote, passed AB 849, which would change the definition of marriage from “one man and one woman” to “two persons.”
The bill, if it is approved by the Assembly, the lower house of the California Legislature, would pave the way for two men, or two women, to lawfully marry each other in the Golden State.
Pro-family activists are calling on Californians to contact their state Assembly members—and work for the bill’s defeat.
Glen Lavy, senior vice president of the Alliance Defense Fund’s Marriage Litigation Center, said the passage of the bill in the Senate indicates that the majority of the state’s senators “have shown a reckless disregard for the will of their constituents.”
“AB 849,” he said, “flies in the face of the expressed will of the people of California as expressed at the ballot box.”
Lavy is referring to the fact that in 2000, California voters approved Proposition 22, a voter initiative which explicitly defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman only.
AB 849 must now go back to the Assembly floor for approval—and it is there pro-family activists are hoping to stop its advance.
According to Mona Passignano, state issues analyst at Focus on the Family Action, the original same-sex marriage legislation, AB 19, was defeated on the Assembly floor in June by a slim margin of four votes.
However, the bill’s sponsor, openly homosexual Assemblyman Mark Leno, refused to give up.
“What Mr. Leno did was get some of his friends to help him gut and amend a marine biology bill, and put the same-sex marriage bill back into it,” Passignano said. “Hijacking another bill allowed the legislation to stay alive; otherwise, he would have to begin all over again.”
Republican California Sen. Tom McClintock said there is no predicting what the Assembly will do.
McClintock told CitizenLink today that this bill—which he vehemently opposes—is aimed at destroying the concept of family.
“You could repeal all of the laws and abolish all of the governments, and families would still exist,” he said. "Mothers and fathers would come together to form families and to raise children in those families. We have built up a body of law over several millennia to support that unique institution.
“But we are now suffering the social pathologies as a society that are created when government becomes hostile to this natural institution.”
Pro-family activists in California, meanwhile, led by the California Family Council in Sacramento, have targeted a handful of state Assembly members who will most likely be voting against the measure, and they are asking Californians to mobilize and contact these lawmakers.
It’s not clear, Passignano said, whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would support or veto such a bill, should it ever reach his desk.
TAKE ACTION
If you are a California resident, it is important that you contact your assembly member, and insist that he or she oppose AB 849, Assemblyman Mark Leno’s gay marriage bill.
It is also vitally important for you to contact the handful of Assembly members who abstained when AB 19 was voted on, and which the California Family Council has determined need to hear from you, regardless of whether they represent your district.
You can find their names and contact information on the California Family Council Web site.
family.org/cforum/news/a0037789.cfm
Senators in the Golden State go further in passing a same-sex marriage bill than any other state legislature has gone.
The California Senate on Wednesday became the first chamber of any legislature in the country to approve homosexual marriage.
Senators, on a 21-15 vote, passed AB 849, which would change the definition of marriage from “one man and one woman” to “two persons.”
The bill, if it is approved by the Assembly, the lower house of the California Legislature, would pave the way for two men, or two women, to lawfully marry each other in the Golden State.
Pro-family activists are calling on Californians to contact their state Assembly members—and work for the bill’s defeat.
Glen Lavy, senior vice president of the Alliance Defense Fund’s Marriage Litigation Center, said the passage of the bill in the Senate indicates that the majority of the state’s senators “have shown a reckless disregard for the will of their constituents.”
“AB 849,” he said, “flies in the face of the expressed will of the people of California as expressed at the ballot box.”
Lavy is referring to the fact that in 2000, California voters approved Proposition 22, a voter initiative which explicitly defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman only.
AB 849 must now go back to the Assembly floor for approval—and it is there pro-family activists are hoping to stop its advance.
According to Mona Passignano, state issues analyst at Focus on the Family Action, the original same-sex marriage legislation, AB 19, was defeated on the Assembly floor in June by a slim margin of four votes.
However, the bill’s sponsor, openly homosexual Assemblyman Mark Leno, refused to give up.
“What Mr. Leno did was get some of his friends to help him gut and amend a marine biology bill, and put the same-sex marriage bill back into it,” Passignano said. “Hijacking another bill allowed the legislation to stay alive; otherwise, he would have to begin all over again.”
Republican California Sen. Tom McClintock said there is no predicting what the Assembly will do.
McClintock told CitizenLink today that this bill—which he vehemently opposes—is aimed at destroying the concept of family.
“You could repeal all of the laws and abolish all of the governments, and families would still exist,” he said. "Mothers and fathers would come together to form families and to raise children in those families. We have built up a body of law over several millennia to support that unique institution.
“But we are now suffering the social pathologies as a society that are created when government becomes hostile to this natural institution.”
Pro-family activists in California, meanwhile, led by the California Family Council in Sacramento, have targeted a handful of state Assembly members who will most likely be voting against the measure, and they are asking Californians to mobilize and contact these lawmakers.
It’s not clear, Passignano said, whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would support or veto such a bill, should it ever reach his desk.
TAKE ACTION
If you are a California resident, it is important that you contact your assembly member, and insist that he or she oppose AB 849, Assemblyman Mark Leno’s gay marriage bill.
It is also vitally important for you to contact the handful of Assembly members who abstained when AB 19 was voted on, and which the California Family Council has determined need to hear from you, regardless of whether they represent your district.
You can find their names and contact information on the California Family Council Web site.
family.org/cforum/news/a0037789.cfm