Gay (Same Sex) Marriage and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: VETO Updated

UPDATE 17:52 PDT

The ASSociated Press is reporting that a spokesman for Governor Schwazenegger has said the Governor will VETO this bill seeking to legalize gay (same sex) marriage in California.

The Announcement: Schwarzenegger Vows Gay Marriage Bill Veto.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday that he will veto a bill that would 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 a ballot initiative five years ago. Proposition 22 prevents California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries.

“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).”

Members of the Gay and Lesbian community, Mark Guzman, right, and his partner Scott Coatsworth, center, along Mary McKay, of Equality California sit in the Assembly gallery as lawmakers debate Assemblyman Mark Leno’s, D-San Francisco, same-sex marriage measure at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005. By a 41-35 vote the Assembly approved the bill making California Legislature the first legislative body in the country to allow same-sex marriages. The measure was approved last weekby the state Senate and needs Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggers signature to become law.

The Sacramento Bee has Legislature sends Schwarzenegger historic same-sex marriage bill.

In a reversal from just three months ago, the state Assembly on Tuesday sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in California.

Onlookers in the Assembly chambers unleashed a rousing cheer about 7:30 p.m. as Assembly Bill 849 passed by the narrowest of margins in the 79-member house, 41-35. With the Senate’s approval last week, the emotional issue now shifts to Schwarzenegger’s office.

The Republican governor has said he prefers the courts to decide the issue of gay marriage. His press office offered no immediate comment Tuesday on the bill’s passage.

The measure passed largely along party lines, with all Republicans opposed and all but four Democrats in favor.

As Flap had previously the Govinator will VETO this bill.

His VETO message has already been articulated.

He has said the issue should be decided by voters or the courts.

Ben’s Law has a good run down on the legalese and the exact language and political machinations of the bill here.

Ken Masugi over at the Claremeont Institute has Same-Sex Marriage in California?

Democratic Assemblyman Mark Leno’s bill, making marriage a contract between two persons, has now passed the Assembly and goes to the Governor for his signature (LAT). Of course, this isn’t about marriage at all, as Professor Brad Watson has shown. It is about affirming the destruction of the concept of our sexual mores.

Besides misconstruing marriage, the bill presents a distortion of civil rights; see below.

This should be a no-brainer veto for the Governor, but his behavior over the past few months seems to beg for self-destruction.

The measure, by Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) would change California law defining marriage from “a civil contract between a man and a woman” to a “civil contract between two persons.” Leno characterized gay marriage as the most important civil rights issue of the 21st century, and enlisted Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America,and Alice Huffman, California president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, to help him lobby undecided lawmakers.

Ken has it right.

Schwarzenegger has until Oct. 9 to act on the bill.

Flap knows that Schwarzenegger remembers the 2004 Presidential election and how Gay Marriage measures propelled evangelical and catholic church-goers to the polls in swing states. Arnold receives no benefit in signing this bill – which would be thrown-out later by the California Supreme Court, in any case.

California voters have already spoken when they approved Proposition 22 in March 2000.

Oh! And as a reminder to the Governor:

Proposition 22 was ratified by an overwhelming majority of California voters, prevailing by a 23-point margin. Statewide, 4,618,673 votes were cast in favor of the proposition, comprising 61.4% of the total vote. Opponents garnered 2,909,370 votes, for 38.6% of the vote.

Final vote counts revealed that Proposition 22 won in 52 of California’s 58 counties, including all of the major metropolitan areas except for San Francisco. The six counties which did not approve Prop. 22 were all in the immediate San Francisco Bay area, including: Alameda county, Marin county, San Francisco county, Santa Cruz county, Sonoma county, and Yolo county.

Assemblyman Doug La Malfa, R-Chico, holds up a Proposition 22 sign to show his opposition to a same-sex marraige bill before the Assembly at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005. By a 41-35 vote the Assembly approval the bill, by Assemblyman mark Leno, D-San Francisco, making the California Legislature the first legislative body in the country to allow same-sex marriages. The measure was approved last week by the state Senate and needs Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggers signature to become law. Voter approved Proposition 22, which was passed in 2000, prohibits California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries.

XRLQ has his take here.

Captain Ed has California Legislature Confirms Its Lack Of Connection To Voters

La Shawn Barber has California Homosexual ‘Marriage’ Bill Passed.

Boi From Troy has delusions if he REALLY thinks Schwarzenegger will sign this bill.

California Log Cabin Republicans have California Legislature approves Marriage Equality.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s statements on the matter have been mixed. He’s said he supports gay marriage–but only if it is between a man and a woman. He said he thought this was an issue the Legislature or the voters, not the court, should decide.

Now that decision is in the hands of the Governor–a man who has never vetoed a gay rights bill–and he has a chance to do what Howard Dean shied away from as Governor of Vermont and grant equal rights in name and in actuality. But will he?

If he wants to be re-elected California Governor he will VETO.

If he wants to make movies and endorse body-building magazines he will sign it or let it become law.

The Vote in the California Assembly:

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