Schearnenegger Boots Again

Schwarzenegger Boots Again
By: PAUL SCHINDLER
09/20/2007
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Hoping against hope, gay Angelenos urge the governor to do the right thing.
Even as marriage equality and LGBT civil rights advocates were finalizing plans for rallies in more than a dozen cities across the state, California's Republican governor announced Monday that for the second time he will veto legislation that would open civil marriage to same-sex couples.

Citing a tally from Primary Day 2000 in which 61 percent of those voting approved a referendum stating that same-sex marriages would not be recognized there, Arnold Scharzenegger said, "It would be wrong for the people to vote for something and for me to then overturn it. So they can send this bill down as many times as they want, I won't do it."

Earlier this month, the Legislature gave final approval to a marriage equality bill it first passed in 2005, when Schwarzenegger also killed it.

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The governor, who will likely have the bill on his desk within days, has until October 14 to act. Advocates from Marriage Equality USA and Equality California, the state's LGBT lobby group, aimed to apply pressure on Schwarzenegger with their rallies, but Marriage Equality's policy director Pamela Brown conceded the uphill nature of their job, noting that "the governor appears unwilling to meet with any gay or lesbian families."

Still, LGBT Californians and their allies turned out in force on the evening of September 18 in 17 different cities. A jam-packed press conference in the LGBT Community Center in San Francisco was followed by a march by 500 through that city's streets. Several hundred turned out in Los Angeles and staged a colorful event at which they placed pens, presumably for signing legislation, on top of Schwarzenegger's star on Hollywood Boulevard.

Activist and media reports from elsewhere in California indicate that about 100 turned out in the state capital of Sacramento, 60 in Modesto, 50 each in San Luis Obispo and Santa Rosa, and 20 in Stockton.

While activists may be garnering attention from the public, they have been less successful at getting the governor's ear. Brown's comment about Schwarzenegger's unwillingness to meet with LGBT families came in the wake of a call by Equality California for the governor to do just that.

James Vaughn, the California and Western Region director of the Log Cabin Republicans, said he had not had a direct conversation with Schwarzenegger about the marriage bill since he assumed his post last December, though the group had spoken to aides to the governor.

"With his statement yesterday, we can only look to the court ruling next year and hope Governor Schwarzenegger stands by his previous statements that he would abide by a court ruling on this issue," Vaughn said in an e-mail message.

A lawsuit seeking marriage equality, which won a first round victory before a San Francisco district judge but was then overturned on appeal, is currently before the California Supreme Court. A ruling is expected in 2008.

Marriage equality advocates have repeatedly challenged Schwarzenegger on his reliance on the 2000 referendum in explaining his veto. First, according to Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, the only restriction clearly put in place by the referendum was related to recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages, a bar expressly allowed under the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act. Others point out that a primary election with low voter turnout can hardly be held out as an enduring barometer of public opinion, especially nearly eight years later.

Marriage Equality USA points to significant changes in California's posture toward lesbian and gay families since that vote. In March 2000, when the primary took place, the state's domestic partner registry was not yet even in place. Since then, more than 50 laws supporting LGBT rights, relationships, and families have been enacted, and the state now has among the strongest recognition of gay and lesbian couples outside of the four Northeast states with civil unions and Massachusetts.

Marriage Equality also points to a poll last September conducted by the Public Policy Institute showing that 47 percent of likely California voters support marriage equality, with 46 percent opposed. And to the fact that not a single legislator who voted for same-sex marriage in 2005 lost their seat.

Unfortunately these arguments, at least for now, are probably for naught.
In the wake of Tuesday's rallies, Mark Leno, the Democratic assemblyman from San Francisco who first introduced marriage equality legislation, ripped into Schwarzenegger, charging that a second veto would stand as proof that he was "failing his test of leadership."

The city's Democratic mayor, Gavin Newsom, who electrified the nation by issuing marriage licenses to gay couples in early 2004, before the state courts stepped in, was more subdued, saying simply, We're disappointed but we're not surprised."



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