First the bad news: On Tuesday, the California Secretary of State’s office confirmed that supporters an anti-mariage ballot initiative had gathered enough signatures to place the initiative on the Nov. 4 ballot. If the measure passes, the state constitution would be amended to ban marriage for gay people.
Unlike Massachusetts, where gay marriage is also legal, California has no residency requirement for marriage, so gay couples from across the country are welcome to be married here.
Yesterday, however, the state Supreme Court denied an appeal by GOP-connected political operatives to stay its ruling legalizing marriage until the vote in November.
That means marriage will be legal for gay couples in California from June 16 at least until Nov. 4.
Unlike Massachusetts, where gay marriage is also legal, California has no residency requirement for marriage, so gay couples from across the country are welcome to be married here.
Marriage activists predict that couples from other states who get married in California will challenge the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prohibits states from recognizing gay marriages from other states. This appears to be an obvious violation of the Constitution’s “full faith and credit clause.”
Ironically, DOMA was the work product of a handful of powerful adulterers in Washington. It was written by thrice-married, then Rep. Bob Barr, who is the Libertarian Party presidential nominee this year. It was rammed through the Senate by Majority Leader Bob Dole, who left his first wife for a stewardess, and through the House by Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was concurrently having an extramarital affair — and signed into law by Pres. Clinton at the time of his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Out of state political groups with connections to the Republican Party are thought to be behind the anti-marriage initiative, which they hope will increase turnout for John McCain.These groups paid over $1 million to workers who gathered signatures in supermarket parking lots in rural districts. A pair of polls on the amendment in the last few weeks offered precisely opposite results. A Los Angeles Times survey found that 54 percent of voters were in favor of the measure, while a Field Poll found that 51 percent of voters were against it.
