Schwarzenegger Says He'll Veto Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Less than 24 hours after a landmark same-sex marriage proposal won final legislative approval, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday announced he would reject the measure and that the contentious issue should be settled by a vote of the people or the courts.
In a two-paragraph statement, Schwarzenegger's press secretary said he respects the legal protections already afforded gays in California as well as overwhelming support by voters in 2000 for Proposition 22 - now under challenge in California courts - that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
"The governor believes the matter should be determined not by legislative action - which would be unconstitutional - but by court decision or another vote of the people of our state," said Margita Thompson. "We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote."
The governor's unusually quick announcement, however, is far from the final word because the issue of same-sex marriage is pending in state courts. Likewise, backers of two more anti-gay-marriage measures hope to get on the ballot next year.
After first ducking the issue on Wednesday, Schwarzenegger surprised lawmakers with his statement. "If this is true," said Assemblyman Mark Leno, San Francisco Democrat and the bill's author, "it would be very disrespectful to the many millions of Californians who support this bill to make a decision without even allowing the proponents to make a case for his signature. This is not just another bill."
Tuesday's vote made the California Legislature the first legislative body in the nation to approve same-sex marriage. It was passed by the Democratic-controlled Assembly with the bare minimum 41 votes needed.
Thompson's statement nipped a massive lobbying effort supporters were planning and caught many of them off guard. It also may cement conservative backing for Schwarzenegger in the special election and if he runs for re-election in 2006.
"Oh my," said Patrick Soricone, executive director of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose, which was preparing to celebrate the passage of Leno's bill on Wednesday night. "I was just pulling out the sparkling cider." He described his state of mind as "extreme disappointment."
For Schwarzenegger to have OK'd same-sex marriage legislation, the governor would have needed to make a bold break with Republican Party orthodoxy and risk a backlash among his base supporters.
The one-time Hollywood star won the governorship as a social moderate and a backer of gay rights. But for the past nine months he's pursued a strong GOP agenda, solidifying support among staunch conservatives who he badly needs to pass his three November special election measures on the state budget, teacher tenure and legislative district lines. And that seemed to pay off Wednesday night.
A delighted Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, Irvine Republican, said "this single action goes further to ensure his re-election in 2006 than just about anything he can be doing right now. I think it shows many Californians that this governor is the only thing that stands between the extreme liberals in the Legislature and their enacting their agenda. It just reminds people why they voted for him in the recall."
Thompson's statement, though, also included a nod to moderates.
"In Governor Schwarzenegger's personal life and work in public service," she said, "he has considered no undertaking to be more noble than the cause of civil rights. He believes that gay couples are entitled to full protection under the law and should not be discriminated against based upon their relationship. He is proud that California provides the most rigorous protections in the nation for domestic partners."
With Californians evenly divided in opinion polls, the bill may have handed Schwarzenegger an issue that could reinvigorate his special election campaign and rally support for conservative cultural issues in California and elsewhere in the nation.
Bruce Cain, director of the UC Center in Washington, said Schwarzenegger could use the legislature's vote as an example of Democrats being out of touch with the state's political mainstream, much the way he campaigned in 2003 on the issue of Democratic support for allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses.
`It's not highly correlated with what's on the ballot," Cain said before the announcement. "But on the margins it does recreate the dynamic that made Schwarzenegger's election in the recall possible in the first place."
Nonetheless, Tuesday's Assembly vote shows the distance the gay rights cause has come since 1999 when a bill to ban discrimination against gay students in public schools was narrowly defeated after one of the most riveting debates in the past 25 years. A revised version was later passed.
Detractors say the issue is not about civil rights but about keeping marriage between a man and a woman.
"If California was to move forward, that would be the impetus to change the U.S. Constitution," said Phil Burress, a Christian conservative who has championed opposition to single-sex marriage in Ohio. "It will have that type of impact. So it could be a lose-lose situation for those promoting same-sex marriage."
The California Supreme Court last month declined to step immediately into the legal battle over gay marriage, allowing the lower courts to rule first and ensuring the conflict will not be resolved until at least next year.
Tallahassee Democrat