Battle Plans Unveiled In California Anti-Gay Amendment Drive

Battle Plans Unveiled In California Anti-Gay Amendment Drive

by Mark Worrall 365Gay.com San Francisco Bureau

Posted: May 25, 2005 5:00 pm ET

(San Francisco, California) Gay groups and their supporters announced
a massive battle plan on Wednesday to combat a proposed amendment to
the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

At simultaneous press conferences in cities across California,
representatives of more than 200 groups announced the formation of a
coalition to oppose the amendment.

The coalition, which calls itself "Equality for All", will soon begin
fundraising and organizing, its leaders announced.

A group called the "Voters' Right to Protect Marriage Initiative" has
begun collecting signatures to have the proposed amendment placed on
the 2006 ballot. (story) If approved by voters it would not only bar
gays and lesbians from marrying but also void the state's landmark
domestic partner law.

"The sponsors of this initiative are `hate groups' who have decided
that they are not going to let lesbian and gay people be fully
accepted and fully a part of our society," pastor Cecil Williams of
Glide Memorial Church told a rally in San Francisco Wednesday.

"We are not going to take this sitting down. This type of initiative
and this type of discrimination should not exist in the 21st century."

Victor Hwang of the Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach said the
Asian American community knows a lot about discrimination.

"In the past, state and federal laws have barred Asian American women
from entering this country, have prohibited marriages between whites
and `negroes, mulattoes, or Mongolians,' and have directed that any
U.S. citizen marrying an Asian would be stripped of their citizenship

"If passed, this initiative would make California the most backwards
state in our nation and turn back our clocks more than a hundred
years," said Hwang.

The "Voters' Right to Protect Marriage Initiative" was filed with the
state Attorney General's Office last week by the California Campaign
for Children and Families, a group that has been involved in legal
battles against same-sex marriage in the state.

Randy Thomasson the group's leader said that the CCCF decided to begin
the initiative after state Assembly and Senate committees this month
rejected a constitutional amendment.

Meanwhile, a bill that would allow same-sex marriage is moving
forward. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act
passed a key committee late last month. The legislation,
sponsored by openly gay Assemblyman Mark Leno ( D-San Francisco) would
allow gays to marry but also allow churches opposed to same-sex unions
to refuse to perform the marriages.

It has the support of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and other key
Democrats. Earlier this month the California Democratic Party passed a
resolution supporting same-sex marriage.


Victor Hwang API Legal Outreach, Mike Casey UNITE HERE Local 2, Maria Guillen SEIU Local 790, Eva Patterson, School Board Commissioner Norman Yee, Reverend Cecil Williams Glide Memorial Church, Rabbi Kahn