John Marcotte had a revelation after he voted against Proposition 8, the 2008 California initiative that banned same-sex marriage -- in part, its backers said, to preserve traditional marriage.

If saving traditional marriage was the aim, then there has to be a better way, thought the Sacramento father of two. "Don't stop gay people from getting married; stop straight people from getting divorced!

"It's a much more direct way of achieving the goal of Prop. 8."

So Marcotte went and drafted a ballot measure of his own, one that would ban divorce but still allow for religious annulments. And now, the 2012 California Marriage Protection Act has cleared a major legal milestone: Last week, the secretary of state's office gave Marcotte permission to start gathering signatures. To make the June 2012 ballot, he'll need nearly 700,000 approved signatures by the spring of that year.