California Attorney General Jerry Brown has become a hero to gay rights advocates - and a potential leader in the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial field - with his recent controversial decision to mount a legal challenge to overturn Proposition 8, the initiative approved by voters that banned-same sex marriage in California.

But few remember that 32 years ago, when Brown was governor of California, he played a crucial role on the same issue - he signed the landmark bill that changed the state's definition of marriage from a contract between two persons to one specifically between a man and a woman.

At the time, proponents of the bill praised it as one that would "outlaw marriages between homosexuals."