It is a breakup many LGBT activists say is long overdue, and now openly gay state Senator Mark Leno wants the state to intervene in the split. Leno is pushing a bill that would, in effect, divorce religion from marriage under California's statutes.

Leno's bill, SB 906, is called the Civil Marriage Religious Freedom Act. It would emphatically state that faith leaders in California will not face penalties or be arrested if they refuse to marry same-sex couples. The legislation also clarifies that any church that does not sanction same-sex marriages would not lose its tax-exempt status.