California Gay Marriage Ban Moves Forward

SACRAMENTO -- California's attorney general released a summary Monday of a proposed constitutional amendment highlighting how the measure would ban gay marriage and influence the rights and obligations of gay people.

The sponsors of the amendment - Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for Children and Families, former Assemblyman Larry Bowler and Sacramento activist Ed Hernandez - wanted to title the amendment "The Voters' Right to Protect Marriage Initiative." The attorney general, however, disagreed and renamed it "Marriage. Elimination of Domestic Partnership Rights."

The summary states that the amendment would "provide that only marriage between one man and one woman is valid or recognized in California," but also concludes that it "voids and restricts registered domestic partner rights and obligations" in areas ranging from inheritance and adoption to insurance benefits and hospital visitation.

The sponsors of the amendment said Monday that they will challenge Attorney General Bill Lockyer's proposed summary in court, calling it prejudicial and erroneous.

"True to his liberal bias, but untrue to his constitutional duty, Bill Lockyer has dumped on us an inaccurate and prejudicial paragraph that is anything but impartial and fair as the law requires," Thomasson said. "Lockyer completely ignores the chief points, ... the whole issue is the protection of marriage."

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Attorney General Lockyer, stated that "The attorney general's responsibility is to accurately describe what the measure does. It's not up to us to wage the political campaign the proponents or opponents want to wage, just to tell the voters the truth."

"The impact of this amendment would be devastating to hundreds of thousands of California families by taking away nearly all the responsibilities and protections currently afforded to legally recognized domestic partners," said Sid Voorakkara, interim campaign manager, Equality for All.

"Californians have a long history of rejecting discrimination and we are confident they will reject this attempt to single out one group of Californians for permanent second class status."

The amendment needs 598,105 signatures to be qualified for the June 2006 ballot.