Assembly rejects gay marriage ban

By The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO -- An Assembly committee Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages and strip away a long list of rights granted domestic partners in recent years.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee voted 6-3 to reject an amendment by Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, despite claims the proposal would strengthen the intent of voters who approved Proposition 22 five years ago.

That ballot measure was designed to prevent California from recognizing gay marriages performed elsewhere. Other laws bar same-sex marriages from taking place in California.

"When the people said only that marriage could be between a man and a woman they knew exactly what they were talking about," Haynes said. "The words were clear. The meaning was clear. The intention was clear.

Opponents of the amendments said Proposition 22 supporters denied during the campaign fight over the ballot measure that it was an attempt to repeal domestic partners' rights.

"This (constitutional amendment) will do nothing to protect a single family," said Geoffrey Kors, executive director of a group called Equality California. "What it will do is rip away protections that families now have (and) leave children without health insurance, leave couples without any legal recourse to protect themselves."

Since 1999, the Legislature has approved a series of bills recognizing domestic partnerships and granting them most of the rights given married couples, including the right to sue for wrongful death of a partner and to adopt a partner's child.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Sherman Oaks, said the Haynes' amendment amounted to "legalizing discrimination."

"The fact is plain and simple," he said. "There is a group of people who, for whatever reason, do not like gays and cannot tolerate the idea of two women sleeping together or two men sleeping together. To put that into the constitution ... is simply unconscionable."

But Haynes said to call the amendment discrimination "is to take the word and turn it on its ear."

"The essence of this (amendment) says that any man, regardless of (his) sexual orientation, can marry any woman, regardless of her sexual orientation," he said. "There is no discrimination on them."