Calif. same sex marriage bill co-author on same sex marriage

Same Sex Marriage - blog by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Woodland Hills, Los Angeles Co.), co author of California's same sex marriage bill 04/08/2008 (04:25 PM)

It’s becoming predictable every election season. California’s anti-gay groups are attempting to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the November ballot. They presume Californians will agree with them and flock to the polls, erasing years of progress.

My hope is this November California voters will be galvanized and electrified by a sense of hope for the future, not limiting it. That’s why I am STRONGLY supporting the “Decline to Sign” campaign fighting to keep the same-sex marriage initiative off the ballot. Whether or not they succeed, California voters will be put on notice that this potential ban would write discrimination into the state’s Constitution.

It’s certainly not lost on most voters that the anti-gay marriage initiative is also a shameless tactic used by Republicans before to get voters to the polls. Recently, Arizona voters saw they were being played for fools by the Republicans and defeated a similar same-sex marriage ban.

In March 2005 a Superior Court judge in San Francisco ruled that the law denying same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The state appealed and the California Court of Appeals in a split decision overturned the ruling. It was then appealed to the California Supreme Court. In March the justices heard arguments in the case and a decision is expected in the next three months. I believe the California Supreme Court will rule that the equal-protection clauses of the state’s Constitution trumps the state law defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.
Throughout this legal wrangling, the California Legislature also passed several bills allowing same-sex marriage but they were vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. I have been a co-author on each of them and am proud to be part of that history-making moment.

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