California Gays Gird For War
by Mark Worrall
365Gay.com Newscenter
San Francisco Bureau
Posted: October 15, 2003 12:02 a.m. ET
(San Francisco, California) Gay and lesbian Californians are bracing
for an an all out war to preserve the state's landmark domestic
partner legislation.
Equality California, the state's largest LGBT civil rights group
already has put $25,000 into a war chest and formed a campaign
committee to fight a referendum (story) filed by Republican state
Senator Pete Knight and Assemblymember Ray Haynes to overturn the new
law.
"Senator Knight's proposed referendum to take rights away from
California families will not succeed," said Geoffrey Kors, EQCA
Executive Director and Campaign Manager for Equality for California
Families.
"California voters believe that domestic partners and their families
should be treated fairly under the law and we are confident that we
will prevail."
The law provides registered domestic partners with access to hundreds
of California laws that already protect opposite-sex married couples
and their families. Rights and responsibilities conveyed by the Act
include: community property, mutual responsibility for debts,
parenthood presumptions, child custody and support obligations, access
to family courts, the right not to testify against a domestic partner,
the right to obtain absentee ballots for a domestic partner, and the
right to claim a partner's body after death.
The legislation was signed into law last month by Gov. Gray Davis
(story) and comes into effect in 2005.
The referendum is not the first time that Senator Pete Knight has led
an attack on California's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
communities. In 2000, voters passed the Knight-sponsored Proposition
22 to require the state of California to refuse to honor marriages
between same-sex couples performed in other jurisdictions. In a
related lawsuit filed at the same time as the referendum, Knight
claims that the Domestic Partner Act violates Proposition 22.
To qualify for a vote by the people, referendum supporters must gather
373,816 valid voter signatures by December 21, 2003. If they are
successful, the referendum would likely appear on the ballot during
the March 2004 presidential primary election.
Equality California is expecting to work with local LGBT rights groups
throughout the states to build grassroots opposition to the
referendum.
Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger has not commented on the
referendum.
Sunday Gov. Davis signed legislation making California the first state
in the nation to require businesses to offer domestic partner benefits
if they want state contracts. (story)
©365Gay.com® 2003
.
|
