Arnold to Continue Vetoing Gay Marriage Bill

SACRAMENTO, CA -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that he has not changed his view on gay marriage and will continue vetoing it unless voters overturn an anti-gay marriage initiative that Californians adopted in 2000.

"It would be wrong for the people to vote for something and for me to then overturn it," Schwarzenegger said. "So they can send this bill down as many times as they want, I won't do it."

The California Senate approved the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act on September 7, which would remove gender from the state's marriage laws and replace it with the gender neutral phrase "a legal contract between two persons." The act would still let religious groups refuse to sanction the unions.

Geoff Kors, executive director of the gay rights organization Equality California, said he hopes Schwarzenegger sticks by earlier comments that he will abide by the state Supreme Court's ultimate decision on whether California's ban on same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. The high court's ruling could come next year.

"We're extremely disappointed he is taking a position on the bill without meeting with a single lesbian-gay family, as we have asked him to do the last two years," Kors said. "How would he feel if this was a bill affecting who he could marry?"

Schwarznegger has until Oct. 14 to act on the measure.