AM Alert: Is Proposition 8 referendum in the cards?

During a chat with The Bee's editorial board Wednesday, Steinberg said he could envision the Democrat-controlled Legislature using its new-found two-thirds majority power to put a gay-marriage referendum on a future statewide ballot. "Depending upon what the Supreme Court might or might not do with Proposition 8, in coalition with stakeholders and the gay and lesbian leadership, if it were approp...

Sacramento Bee • Nov 15, 2012

Gay rights group drops $1M in gay marriage fights

The Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign is donating $250,000 apiece to allies in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. It brings the group's total spending on the issue this year to nearly $5 million. Voters in Maine are voting on whether to legalize gay marriage. In Minnesota, the vote is whether to ban gay marriage in the state constitution. In Maryland and Washington, voters will...

Sacramento Bee • Aug 6, 2012

Bill would shield churches from performing same-sex marriages

A bill making its way through the Legislature would protect churches' nonprofit status if clergy members refuse to perform gay marriages. Senate Bill 1140 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, also states that marriage is a civil contract, not a religious one. "Whether or not one believes that all Californians should have equal marriage rights or should be treated equally under the law, I think we ...

Sacramento Bee • Jun 25, 2012

Proposition 8 campaign architect leaves Sacramento firm

Sacramento political consultant Frank Schubert, who guided Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage to victory in 2008, announced today that he is leaving the firm he founded. Schubert suggested his advocacy for conservative causes -- opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage -- was hindering Schubert Flint Public Affairs' work with corporate clients....

Sacramento Bee • Apr 4, 2012

Gay rights advocates step up pressure on Mayor Johnson

Marriage rights activists are stepping up their pressure on Mayor Kevin Johnson to join dozens of other elected officials in supporting gay marriage. ...

Sacramento Bee • Feb 16, 2012

Mini plays dealing with gay marriage delayed

Producers said Wednesday that "Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays" will begin previews at the Minetta Lane Theatre on Nov. 7 with an official opening on Nov. 13. Previously, the plays were to make their bow in October....

Sacramento Bee • Sep 29, 2011

CA gay marriage ban case to be heard Sept. 6

California's highest court says it will hear arguments right after Labor Day on an issue that is likely to prove decisive for the fate of the state's voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriages....

Sacramento Bee • Jul 29, 2011

Viewpoints: Judges should not have to open up their private lives

Judges should not be excepted from the liberties they spend their careers protecting. Requiring them to opine about the future of their personal lives would render the price of becoming a judge simply too much to pay. There is nothing ethical and nothing American about inflicting this unjust requirement on our keepers of justice. ...

Sacramento Bee • Jun 13, 2011

RI civil union compromise wins little support

Civil unions may make for good legislative compromise in Rhode Island's gay marriage debate, but the proposal won nothing but scorn during a public hearing at the Statehouse on Wednesday. Gay marriage supporters told lawmakers that civil unions treat gay couples as second-class citizens. Opponents said the bill creates an easy steppingstone to full marriage rights for same-sex couples. The bill ...

Sacramento Bee • May 12, 2011

Bill to give Prop. 8 proponents legal standing dies

A bill to give initiative proponents the right to defend voter-approved ballot measures against legal challenges was rejected by a Senate panel yesterday. Senate Bill 5 targets an issue that has emerged in the court fight over Proposition 8, the 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage that was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge last year. The Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the bi...

Sacramento Bee • May 5, 2011

Imperial County clerk files motion to join Prop. 8 case

The elected clerk of Imperial County, Chuck Storey, filed a motion today to intervene in ongoing proceedings over Proposition 8, the 2008 voter-approved ballot measure that prohibited same-sex marriage. The filing follows the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' rejection of a similar request for standing in the case made by the county's board of supervisors and unelected deputy clerk. The three-ju...

Sacramento Bee • Feb 27, 2011

Anti-gay marriage attorney loses Assembly bid Share

Voters in a Sacramento-area Assembly district have defeated a Republican attorney who became the face of California's ongoing debate over gay marriage during the fall election....

Sacramento Bee • Nov 4, 2010

Courage Campaign: Meg Whitman won't be able to defend Prop. 8

"She wouldn't be governor yet," Jacobs said. "The appeals court will decide before there would be a change of governor and attorney general." UC Hastings College of the Law professor Rory Little said Whitman's ability to defend the proposition would hinge on several factors - the biggest of which, of course, is whether she becomes governor. It would also depend on whether the 9th Circuit decides...

Sacramento Bee • Aug 23, 2010

Appeal filed over gay marriage ruling in Calif.

The appeal was filed by Protect Marriage, a coalition of religious and conservative groups that sponsored Proposition 8 and wound up defending it after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused. Walker, meanwhile, said he would consider waiting for the 9th Circuit to render its decision before he makes his opinion final and requires the state to stop enforcing...

Sacramento Bee • Aug 5, 2010

Anti-gay candidate tests GOP appeal

John C. Eastman, seeking the Republican nomination for California attorney general, could become a new face in the fight to block same-sex marriage. His candidacy threatens to further shrink the GOP's dwindling market share among California voters, even as he seeks to use the campaign apparatus that won the epic battle to ban same-sex marriage in 2008. Eastman has surrounded himself with promin...

Sacramento Bee • Apr 7, 2010

Prop. 8 witness thinks same-sex marriage undermines heterosexual marriage

Under cross-examination, Blankenhorn said he has not scientifically studied the impact of same-sex marriage on the institution of marriage in countries where it is now legal. And he said that none of the work by scholars that he submitted to court has studied the impact either. He also said he knew of no study showing that children raised by gay parents are worse off than children raised by thei...

Sacramento Bee • Jan 28, 2010

Equal rights group will wait until 2012 to challenge Prop. 8

The leaders of Equality California, which calls itself the largest gay rights advocacy group in the state, said they won't try to qualify a measure on the subject for the 2010 ballot despite demands from many gay and lesbian activists seeking quicker movement on the issue. That decision, however, hasn't stopped a liberal advocacy group, Courage Campaign, from collecting signatures for a 2010 ball...

Sacramento Bee • Aug 12, 2009

Equal marriage advocates debate next California move

he finger-pointing continues with a very sharp internal argument over whether to seek Proposition 8's repeal in 2010, or wait until 2012 for a new ballot fight. Sometime this week, it appears, that decision will be made by the myriad gay rights organizations because any attempt at qualifying a measure for the 2010 ballot must begin very soon. The internal debate pits younger and more liberal equ...

Sacramento Bee • Aug 11, 2009

Prop. 8 leader to run for Sacramento-area Assembly seat

A leader in this year's successful ballot fight to ban equal marriage in California is planning to run for a Sacramento-area Assembly seat....

Sacramento Bee • Jun 14, 2009

The next equal marriage vote: 2010 or 2012?

Equality California, which says it's the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender-rights advocacy organization in the state, has concluded that sooner is better than later....

Sacramento Bee • May 28, 2009

Prop. 8 opponents' TV ads show same-sex couples

Equality California organizers said Thursday they remain hopeful that Proposition 8 will be overturned. But they say they are moving ahead with grass-roots organizing to sway public opinion and prepare for another ballot battle as early as in 2010. "We're committed to moving public opinion no matter what the court says," said Geoff Kors, California Equality executive director. The group is raisi...

Sacramento Bee • May 8, 2009

California's gay marriage trailblazers look East for signs of progress

Opinion surveys show a majority of younger voters are supportive of same-sex marriage. It's a matter of time, gay activists say, before public opinion shifts enough that they can win a gay-marriage initiative at the ballot box....

Sacramento Bee • Apr 21, 2009

Ruling could mean civil unions for all in Calif.

A ruling that upholds both voters' November decision to ban gay marriage and the 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted earlier in California could come off as a safe compromise. But it also promises to keep alive an issue that has split the state as few others have. Such a decision would give same-sex marriage advocates an avenue to pursue a federal appeal, and an argument for compelling the state ...

Sacramento Bee • Mar 8, 2009

Gay marriage backers still hard at work in California

Equality California, a gay rights group, is already making plans to hire field organizers to persuade more Californians to accept same-sex marriage. If necessary, activists say, they'll be the ones to take the issue to the ballot box next time. "Regardless of what the court does, we have to change hearts and minds," said Geoff Kors, Equality California executive director....

Sacramento Bee • Mar 7, 2009

California gay rights timeline

Emotions still run high on the issue, but more Californians now say they know gays and lesbians, and approve of same-sex marriage. The shift is particularly pronounced among residents ages 18 to 29....

Sacramento Bee • Mar 1, 2009

California's Prop. 8 legal challenge harkens back to 1966 housing measure

A former actor named Ronald Reagan, who had opposed the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, was a campaign spokesman. "If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house," Reagan declared, "he has a right to do so." Two years after Proposition 14 passed, the state Supreme Court struck it down, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme ...

Sacramento Bee • Feb 18, 2009

Sacramento joins other cities in fighting voter-approved Prop. 8, calling it unconstitutional

Councilman Kevin McCarty requested last month that the council hear the issue of whether the city should join as "amicus curiae" - or friends of the court - in legal challenges against Prop. 8. The California Supreme Court said Tuesday it would begin hearing oral arguments on the challenge to Prop. 8 on March 5. The council voted 8-1 to join the other cities as amicus curiae; Councilman Robbie Wa...

Sacramento Bee • Feb 4, 2009

Sacramento council will vote whether to support legal challenge to Prop. 8

Berkeley, Cloverdale, Davis, Fairfax, Long Beach, Palm Springs and West Hollywood, as well as Humboldt and Sonoma counties have already filed amicus curiae briefs supporting the position that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional....

Sacramento Bee • Feb 3, 2009

Judge denies request to keep Proposition 8 donors secret

"The court finds that the state is not facilitating retaliation by compelling disclosure," he said....

Sacramento Bee • Jan 29, 2009

Brown's Prop. 8 challenge may backfire

In this context, the last thing supporters of gay marriage need is a grandstanding attorney general who, by abandoning his assigned institutional role, creates doubts about the fairness of the Supreme Court proceeding and provides an opening for Proposition 8 supporters to argue that the case has been transformed from a legal to a political contest in which victory goes to the most powerful intere...

Sacramento Bee • Jan 23, 2009

Prop. 8 foes push new ballot measures to reverse gay marriage ban

Angered by the passage of Proposition 8, grass-roots activists are working to place measures on the ballot to reverse California's ban on same-sex unions. The sparsely financed groups are acting independently of the No on 8 Campaign, which is challenging the measure in the state Supreme Court. They plan to use the Internet to collect the nearly 700,000 signatures of registered voters needed to g...

Sacramento Bee • Jan 21, 2009

Jerry Brown wins praise, criticism for stance on Proposition 8

"Challenging Proposition 8 on broad, fundamental grounds is very much consistent with Jerry Brown's reputation," said Darry Sragow, a public policy lawyer and veteran Democratic political strategist. "This is a man who likes to think big thoughts. This is a challenge that is consistent with that."...

Sacramento Bee • Jan 5, 2009

Newsom seeks to get beyond Prop. 8 fiasco in quest to become governor

Even Newsom - who stirred legal and political battles over gay marriage by opening San Francisco City Hall for same-sex weddings in 2004 - ponders whether Californians will view him as anything more than a single-issue candidate....

Sacramento Bee • Dec 13, 2008

Hundreds gather for rally against Prop. 8

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Sacramento Bee • Nov 22, 2008

Gay leaders wary of boycotting Prop. 8's supporters

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Sacramento Bee • Nov 17, 2008

Marcos Bretón: Is gays' intolerance on Prop. 8 the best strategy?

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Sacramento Bee • Nov 16, 2008

Sacramento rally against Prop. 8 draws about 1,500

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Sacramento Bee • Nov 15, 2008

No on 8 campaign was in turmoil in last weeks

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Sacramento Bee • Nov 13, 2008

Prop. 8 victors upset by personal attacks

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Sacramento Bee • Nov 12, 2008

Prop. 8 ruling could come quickly

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Sacramento Bee • Nov 10, 2008

Mormon church in Orangevale vandalized in wake of Prop. 8 vote

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Sacramento Bee • Nov 9, 2008