News
2005-09-14
Activists hope to
change Schwarzenegger's mind on marriage veto
Hoping to change
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's mind after
he vowed to veto a recently passed same-sex marri
Hoping to change
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's mind after
he vowed to veto a recently passed same-sex marriage bill,
activists and politicians have delayed sending the
bill to his desk, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. A bill must be physically in the governor's
possession before he can veto it. And the assembly's
leadership doesn't plan to deliver the bill to
Schwarzenegger's desk until the September 23 deadline, gay
assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco said Monday.
Gay rights groups
are planning activities each day until
then, leaders of the gay rights group Equality
California and state officials from the Bay Area told
the Chronicle. Those activities will highlight
various segments of the population that could be affected by
the bill, such as gay senior citizens, children of gay
parents, and different ethnic minority groups.
The governor's
spokeswoman told the paper that Schwarzenegger still plans
to veto the bill. "The governor will not change his mind on
this bill," said Margita Thompson. "The legal issues
do not change, regardless of public input. It will
take another vote of the people or a court action to
determine the issue."
Geoffrey Kors,
who leads Equality California, said 50,000 people had
e-mailed the governor through the group's Web site in one
day last week, and he hopes 1 million people will
contact the governor over the next 12 days. "I'm
confident that through education we can change his heart
and change his mind," Kors said at a press conference Monday
in San Francisco announcing the action. Leno called
the planned Schwarzenegger veto "a political assault
weapon on millions of Californians."
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