California lawmakers eye gay-marriage bill

By William Wan and Lee Romney
Los Angeles Times

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles.

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With supporters of same-sex marriage losing a major round in the California Supreme Court, the debate seems likely to move to the California Legislature, a shift that will pose risks for leaders of both parties.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said Friday the Legislature will take up a bill next year to legalize gay marriage, and he believes it will pass.

"I see this as a modern-day civil-rights issue," said Nunez, a Democrat from Los Angeles. "Sure it's controversial ... [but] I suspect it will go to the governor's desk."

Democrats might be able to win passage of a same-sex marriage bill, but they don't claim to have the votes to override a veto if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't sign it.

Schwarzenegger has remained ambiguous on the issue, even while many in his Republican Party have opposed it. During the flood of marriages in San Francisco, Schwarzenegger carefully remained vague, providing opinions that were open to interpretation. In June, after being pressed in a Folsom restaurant, the governor answered: "I don't care one way or the other."

In a radio interview Friday morning, his opinion seemed largely the same and did not deal with the fact that he could have the final say in legislation. "I think right now our law says that we don't accept same-sex marriage. ... If the people change their minds, then so be it. If the courts change their mind, then so be it. Then we will follow those laws."

Supporters of gay marriage hope that a major factor in the legislative debate will be the roughly 4,000 same-sex couples who married last winter in San Francisco. Despite Thursday's state Supreme Court ruling that rendered the marriages invalid, those couples have pushed the issue into the state's political spotlight and put a human face on the issue, supporters say.

"Before San Francisco, same-sex marriage was an abstract idea," said Matt Coles, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's much easier to treat an idea in a shabby way than a person in a shabby way. The couples who got married and their vivid stories are going to be very powerful force in the debate."

Opponents are downplaying the importance of the couples in the political debate, particularly in light of Thursday's high-court ruling. "I don't think this event will have any impact one way or another," said Assemblyman Ray Haynes, a Murrieta Republican. "It was all a big game from the beginning, and the court said the game's over."
 
Either way, the legislature is poised to take the next step.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, a San Francisco Democrat who in February had proposed a bill allowing gay marriage, plans to reintroduce the measure in the upcoming session. Leno's previous attempt foundered amid election-year politics and the swarm of other issues facing legislators. The bill, however, passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Action to allow gay marriage in the states that have legalized it has come initially from states' supreme courts, not their legislatures. No state legislature has approved same-sex marriages.

Most Californians do not support gay marriage, opinion polls show. According to a recent Los Angeles Times poll, less than one-third of Californians believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

The same poll shows that almost half of the people who identify themselves as Democrats support gay marriage while Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed.

Los Angeles Times reporter Jean-Paul Renaud contributed to this report.