Knight willing to compromise: will accept gay domestic partnerships

Sacramento News and Review ^ | April 8, 2004 | Jeff Kearns

[Cracker72]

"... same-sex marriage has advanced so far as an issue that even Republicans like Knight, a senator from Palmdale, seem to be changing their minds. In 2000, California voters overwhelmingly approved Knight’s Proposition 22, which said the state would recognize only marriages between a man and a woman. Knight once wouldn’t even consider civil unions and expanded rights for domestic partners, but now he’s willing to compromise--under certain conditions.

Since Proposition 22 passed in 2000, he's seen its power erode--most notably when his gay son recently got married in San Francisco.

Today, Knight says he might be willing to accept some of the domestic-partner rights won last year by lesbian Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles. Knight has been fighting in court to block Goldberg's Assembly Bill 205, which gives domestic partners many of the same rights as married couples, from taking effect next year. But two weeks ago, Knight met with lobbyist Steve Hansen of Equality California, a gay-rights advocacy group that's sponsoring Leno's bill. Both sides described the meeting as friendly.

Knight told SN&R he would support something short of marriage if same-sex-marriage advocates called off their quest for the real thing. "I'd be willing to compromise," Knight recalled saying at the meeting. "We might be able to come up with some system that would allow, for example, domestic partners to be registered, and they would have certain rights associated with that, in consideration for [ending] all of the efforts to change the definition of marriage."

[fry-french]

in consideration for [ending] all of the efforts to change the definition of marriage

The queers should be satisfied with this:)........for a little while. Before long, 'marriage' will be obsolete as compared to what it was when I made my pledge 12 yrs ago. Why can't these guys see that?