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(San Francisco, California) As expected, a
group attempting to put a proposed amendment banning gay marriage before
California voters has failed to submit the signatures required.
The Campaign for Children and Families said last
week that it had not been able to get the number of signatures needed and was
postponing its ballot initiative "for the foreseeable future." (story)
The deadline was Tuesday for submitting names for the June 2006 ballot.
A second conservative group, ProtectMarriage,
also failed to submit its petitions for the June ballot but said it is now
aiming for an April 13 deadline to make it onto November's ballot.
ProtectMarriage said that it is suspending
temporarily its signature drive while it looks for an outside company to collect
names. One of the companies reportedly is Arno Political Consultants - a
California firm with ties to Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (story)
Arno was used by gay marriage opponents in
Massachusetts to gather names for an anti-gay-marriage initiative amid reports
of deception and fraud. (story)
Both Campaign for Children and Families and
ProtectMarriage acknowledge they are far behind LGBT civil rights groups in
fundraising but they say that even if they do not get on the ballot in 2006 they
will continue to fight marriage rights for same-sex couples.
“The failure of this
petition is great news for all of us who have been fighting attempts to demean
and diminish the rights of same-sex couples," said Kate Kendell, executive
director of the National Center on Lesbian Rights.
"The
sponsors of this initiative, and others like it, now know they have weaker
public support than they had hoped. Because we are organizing successfully, they
are also on notice that they will face a major battle when they do make it to
the ballot.”
But, Geoffrey Kors,
executive director of Equality California, warns, “the threat is not behind us
-- not at all."
"There
are still 12 active petitions sponsored by multiple people and groups that seek
to do much the same as this failed petition. We expect to wind up fighting one
or more of those measures in November 2006,” said Kors.
While ProtectMarriage continues to press for a
ballot initiative, Campaign for Children and Families is focusing on the
courts.
Lawsuits brought by same-sex couples wishing to
marry are slowly working their way to state Supreme Court. (story)
From February 12 to March 11, 2004, the City of
San Francisco issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples after Mayor Gavin
Newsom determined that the state Constitution's guarantees of equality and due
process required him to issue licenses to same-sex couples.
The California Supreme Court eventually ruled
that Newsom did not have the authority to issue marriage licenses to same-sex
couples before the state courts had reviewed the constitutionality of the law
limiting licenses to different-sex couples only, and invalidated the marriages
of over 4,000 same-sex couples.
In September, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed
legislation that would have allowed same-sex marriage in California. (story)
©365Gay.com 2005
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