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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vow to veto a landmark same-sex marriage proposal this week -- saying it violated the will of the people -- has prompted the bill's authors to delay delivering the bill to the governor to give gay-rights advocates two weeks to bombard him with calls, e-mails and protests in a last-ditch effort to win support. "The governor has said he supports the will of the people," said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, one of the Legislature's six openly gay members. "Well, let the people call him, let the people e-mail him, let the people be heard. Then he...

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)."...

By the slimmest of margins in each house, 21-15 in the State Senate (21 votes needed for passage) and 41-35 in the State Assembly (41 votes needed for passage), the California legislature sent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the homosexual marriage bill, AB 849. When the governor vetoes this bill, it will cement his reelection and start his long march back to the top of the heap in California politics. Assemblyman Mark Leno’s (D-San Francisco) first attempt at passing a homosexual marriage bill, AB 19, failed twice on June 2, first on a 35 to 37 vote, then on a 37 to...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gay rights supporters cheered loudly from the gallery as California lawmakers became the first in the country to approve a bill allowing same-sex marriages. But their celebration may be short-lived. ADVERTISEMENT The legislation could be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has expressed an acceptance of gay marriages but said it's an issue that should be decided by voters or the courts. "He will uphold whatever the court decides," spokeswoman Margita Thompson said Tuesday after the state Assembly approved the same-sex marriage measure, 41-35. The Senate had approved it last week. A state appellate court is considering...

The California Legislature on Tuesday became the first legislative body in the country to approve a bill allowing same-sex marriages, but the measure faces an uncertain future with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. There were loud cheers by gay-rights activists in the Assembly gallery as lawmakers voted 41-35 to approve the bill and send it to the governor. The Assembly had twice defeated similar legislation. A spokeswoman for the Republican governor said Schwarzenegger believes the issue should be decided by the courts, not by his signature on legislation. A state appellate court is considering appeals of a lower court ruling that overturned...

A landmark bill to legalize gay marriage passed the Assembly by a single vote Tuesday and now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has not said whether he will sign it. The measure passed on a 41-to-35 votes, with no support from Republicans. The author of the bill, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, worked desperately throughout the day to find the votes needed for passage. The Senate approved AB849 last week, marking the first time a legislative body in the country to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. But supporters had a harder time mustering support in the Assembly, where...

The Assembly just passed gay marriage 41-35. The bill now goes to the Governor. Updates, and who voted how to follow on this thread

SAN FRANCISCO - Last week's state Senate vote seeking to legalize gay marriage is the latest example of the political schizophrenia that has come to define the issue in the nation's most populous state. Since 1999, when lawmakers established a registry of same-sex couples, California has been in the vanguard of extending to gay and lesbian partners nearly all the rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples. But for all the state's live-and-let-live social tolerance, voters have balked at granting gay couples the right to marry. In 2000, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22, which strictly defined marriage as the union of...

Leno uses 'gut and amend' technique to change contents of cohort's fisheries legislation. Sacramento -- A state Senate committee voted Tuesday to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, reviving legislation declared "dead for the year" just last month after it failed to pass out of the lower house. The effort comes in the face of two previous failed attempts to pass the bill in the Legislature, a voter-approved ballot measure recognizing marriage as only between a man and a woman, and sentiment that the gay marriage movement galvanized support for President Bush in the presidential election last year. The bill's...

SACRAMENTO – Despite a defeat in the Assembly and a likely veto from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, advocates of same-sex marriage plan to revive their legislation in the Senate. Yesterday, they began using a legislative technique known as "gut and amend" to replace the provisions of an Assembly bill that's already in the Senate with provisions from the defeated same-sex marriage bill. "I can continue the fight for a critically important civil rights issue," said Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, the author of the same-sex marriage bill. "Why would I not go forward?" Gay rights advocates hope that the more liberal...

... 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...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An effort to legalize gay marriage in California died Thursday after supporters could not find the votes to make the state Assembly the first legislative chamber in the nation to give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexuals. It was the second and final time in two days the bill failed to gain the simple majority it needed to pass the 80-member house. The 37-36 tally fell four votes shy. 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...

SACRAMENTO -- A bill to legalize same-sex marriage in California stalled on its initial vote Wednesday in the Assembly, but supporters used a parliamentary procedure to keep the measure alive while they tried to round up more votes. The bill failed on its first vote 35-37. It needed at least 41 votes to pass the 80-member house by the end of the night. Gay rights supporters hoped it would be the first time a legislative chamber in the United States voted voluntarily to put same-sex couples on equal legal footing with heterosexuals. It took a court order for Massachusetts last...

Sacramento -- Landmark votes expected this week in the Assembly on same-sex marriage and physician-assisted suicide appear so close that their outcomes could rest on a sole lawmaker's last-minute deliberations on morality, faith and the role of government in society, according to interviews with several undecided Democrats. With the Assembly poised today to take up AB19 by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, to legalize same-sex marriage in California, many Democrats said Tuesday that they remain undecided on the issue even after months of debate. With Republicans uniformly opposed to the measure, Leno said passage would likely come with only the...

No lawmaker is above the law or the people. Yet state legislators who are pushing AB 19 show no respect for the constitution, laws or people of California. AB 19, which would issue same-sex "marriage" licenses in every county in California, passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 26. Coauthored by 30 Democrats, AB 19 would repeal the people's vote on marriage. Displaying these legislators' sense of superiority over the voters, AB 19 is as good or bad an example of arrogance you can find. The Democrats who have coauthored this same-sex "marriage" bill apparently think they're above the law...

Wary of legislation allowing same-sex matrimony, opponents aim for an initiative. SACRAMENTO — Opponents of gay marriage vowed Tuesday to outlaw such unions with a ballot measure next spring, saying the issue will not be resolved in the Legislature. The foes said lawmakers, who minutes earlier had advanced a bill to legalize marriage between same-sex couples, were out of step with most Californians. If the Legislature votes to allow gay marriage, said Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, it "will ignite the majority of Californians" to support a constitutional amendment that would "override the politicians." Thomasson...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California chapter of the NAACP has endorsed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state, marking the first time an arm of the venerable civil rights group has lent its political clout to the issue that has divided the black community. Members of the California State Conference of the NAACP narrowly voted at their convention last fall to support the pending "Religious Freedom and California Civil Marriage Protection Act," but the group did not make its position public until this week, in advance of the bill's first legislative hearing. "In a place like...

[Free Republic Note: For those who missed the news story (buried by US media outlets) about the rape of children and animals in East Timor by UN Peacekeepers, I suggest you first read the following article published by "The Australian" on 26-Mar-2005: Hushed rape of Timor.] US Congressional Leaders Fight for Victim's Rights in East Timor By LEIF TEEST Associated Press Staff Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation in Congress today they hope will provide relief for Jordanian UN Peacekeepers currently embroiled in an international sex scandal in East Timor. Allegedly, Jordanian peacekeepers routinely engaged in lovemaking with...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - (snip) ...Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, filed a bill that would allow gays to marry. At the urging of the coalition, Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, and Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, introduced constitutional amendments that would elevate the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman from statute to the constitution. Adding the language to the constitution would prevent lawmakers from changing it without approval from voters. (snip) Leno's "Marriage License Nondiscrimination Act" would amend a section of California's family code that defines marriage as "a personal relationship arising out of a civil contract...

Assembly committee backs gay marriage MAKES CALIFORNIA THE FIRST STATE HEADED TOWARD SAME-SEX MARRIAGES By Ann E. Marimow Knight Ridder Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO - A bill to legalize gay marriage cleared its first test Tuesday, making California's Legislature the first in the nation, proponents said, to take a step toward allowing same-sex couples to wed. ... ``By denying marriage, you are implying there is something inherently inferior and unstable about the way that I love and that's just wrong,'' said Leno, D-San Francisco. Contact Ann E. Marimow at amarimow@mercurynews.com or (916) 325-4315.