Antigay activists
in California have for the second time this year failed
to qualify an initiative banning same-sex marriage for the
statewide ballot.
Two groups,
VoteYesMarriage.com and ProtecMarriage.com, failed earlier
this year to gather enough signatures to get a proposed
constitutional marriage ban on the June ballot in the
sate. "[And] today is considered the last drop-dead
day for qualifying for the November ballot," Dale
Kelly Bankhead, campaign manager for Equality for All,
a group battling the proposed amendments, told The
Advocate on Monday. "There's been no signs
of activity. It looks like the threat is gone for this
year."
California is the
only state in which such attempts to amend the
constitution to ban marriage and domestic partnerships for
same-sex couples have been unsuccessful, Bankhead
said. "They've failed not once but twice in 2006," she
said. "This is a moment for fair-minded Californians
to be proud, but not to let up."
"In spite of
filing 14 nearly identical initiatives, these religious
and political extremists failed to qualify even one for the
upcoming elections," said Lorri L. Jean, chief
executive officer of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian
Center and an executive committee member of the
Equality for All campaign. "However, we believe it is a
matter of not if we face such a ballot measure in
California but when. We remain committed to a vigorous
opposition of these types of measures, whenever they
occur. Those who oppose equality are already circulating
petitions for the next statewide election in June of
2008."
Proponents of
placing a ban on marriage equality and domestic
partnerships in the state constitution have told the media
and their supporters that they expect events between
now and 2008 to trigger support for such
discriminatory measures. It is likely that two such
triggering events would include the passage of legislation
to secure marriage equality in state law and a court
ruling finding marriage discrimination
unconstitutional. Marriage legislation sponsored by the
statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality California was passed
in 2005 but vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. The
bill will be reintroduced during the 2007-2008
legislative session.
Constitutional
litigation is currently working its way through the court
system, with a state appeals court ruling anticipated in
2007, followed by review by the California supreme
court. San Francisco superior court judge
Richard Kramer ruled in 2005 in the case of Woo v.
Lockyer that excluding same-sex couples from
marriage was unconstitutional. (The Advocate)
