California vote may undo gay marriages here

Just shy of their 30th year together, Bonnie Aspen and Willow Williams, of Spokane, traveled to California — their dog Chica in tow — and, standing before a county clerk, committed their lives to one another.

"It was a tender thing to do," Aspen said of the ceremony this past Oct. 3. "It's all part of a bigger message that this is a right and important thing."

On Tuesday, from their home in Spokane, the two women will anxiously watch the results of a hotly contested California ballot measure that has the potential to undo their legal commitment.

California's Proposition 8 would amend that's state's constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Voting on it comes just six months after that state's Supreme Court ruled gays and lesbians in the nation's most populous state could legally wed.

What the measure doesn't address — and what legal experts can't seem to agree on — is what will happen to the legal unions of an estimated 16,000 same-sex couples who have wed in California since gay marriage became legal there June 17. An untold number of those couples are from Washington state.

While California Attorney General Jerry Brown has said Proposition 8 would not be retroactive and therefore would not affect existing unions, the Los Angeles Times reported that other top legal experts have said a resolution may ultimately have to be litigated in the courts — with the same Supreme Court that granted gay marriage in the first place having the final say on the question of retroactivity.

Aspen and Williams were told even before they got to the clerk's office that there was a possibility their marriage could later be invalidated. It would not be the first time the couple, who met in Oregon and have been together 29 years, have found themselves in this sort of marital limbo.

The two married in Oregon in 2004 when Multnomah County, following the lead of San Francisco, threw open its doors to gays who wanted to wed. An Oregon court ruling later made that marriage invalid.

If it happens again, "We'll just keep working," Aspen said. Added Williams, "What else can we do?"

Campaign splits voters

In California, those who would preserve the rights to gays to marry and those who would outlaw such unions have been locked in a fierce battle.

Polls have shown voters almost evenly divided, although those who've voted early appear to be approving the gay-marriage ban.

In recent years, voters in 26 other states have amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage; Washington state is not among them. Constitutional bans are also on Tuesday's ballot in two other states, Florida and Arizona.

But among all the states that have faced this question, it's only in California that gays were granted the benefit of marriage before voters were asked to take it away.

"To win at the ballot box in a vote where a majority of your fellow citizens reject discrimination and support your full dignity would be a major shift for [gays] in terms of not just legal status but cultural acceptance," said Kate Kendell, a spokeswoman for the No on 8 campaign, which favors gay marriage.

Chip White, spokesman for Yes on 8, which opposes gay marriage, said this legalization of gay marriage obligates California schools to teach about such unions in classrooms — even to kindergartners. "It's simply not appropriate," he said. In his campaign's effort to protect traditional marriage, he said, "momentum is on our side."

Indeed, such a polarizing issue in a place where celebrities and the wealthy play has drawn considerable attention. Hollywood stars and political heavyweights have entered the fray — mostly in defense of gay marriage.

In September, actor Brad Pitt donated more than $100,000 to fight the gay-marriage ban and actor Samuel L. Jackson lent his voice to a campaign message comparing a gay-marriage ban to the roundup of Japanese Americans during World War II and to miscegenation laws that once outlawed interracial marriages.

The Yes campaign's White countered, "Ours is a campaign of the people. It's not dotted with Hollywood elites and celebrities."

Vows before the vote

Last week, Seattle couple Charles Drabkin and Michael Herzfeld were in San Francisco planning their wedding for this past weekend.

They met at a friend's party in Seattle nearly 12 years ago and have been together ever since.

"For us, this opportunity was about having the same rights and responsibilities as any other couple," said Drabkin, who teaches at Edmonds Community College. "Hopefully, fair-minded people will come to the same realization that it's untenable to have two separate laws for committed people."

The men, he said, realize that a yes vote on Tuesday could invalidate their marriage. "It's something we're both concerned about," Drabkin said. "To have civil rights, and then have them taken away is very upsetting."

So instead of accepting wedding presents, the two have asked their friends and family members to donate to the campaign to defeat the gay-marriage ban.

Like Williams and Aspen, they know that their California marriages don't gain them any rights here in Washington.

In the U.S., only Massachusetts and Connecticut currently offer gay marriage and also are the only states where gay unions from elsewhere are honored.

Both couples say they are part of Washington's domestic-partnership registry, which grants Washington's gay and lesbian couples marriagelike benefits that cover such issues as property rights and child support. Currently, 4,686 gay and lesbian couples in Washington state are part of the registry.

"Gay marriage aside, it blows my mind that any state would consider changing its constitution to deny basic rights," Aspen said.

Williams chimed in: "It seems there are far more important things we should be focused on. ... Is it really going to make a difference to the state of the economy if Bonnie and I are married or not?"

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com