A coalition of
religious groups that hopes to add an antigay
constitutional marriage amendment to California's November
ballot says it has collected the requisite number of
signatures to qualify the measure, according to the
Associated Press.
The coalition,
known as Protect Marriage, claims to have gathered more
than 1.1 million signatures, though it needed only 694,354
signatures in order to meet the threshold.
"We have gone
against tremendous odds to do this, and now the voters
in California will have the chance to protect marriage,"
Brian Brown, executive director of the California
office of the National Organization for Marriage, told
the AP.
Protect Marriage
plans to submit the signatures this week for
verification by the California secretary of state. The
deadline is April 28.
Earlier this
month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a gathering of Log
Cabin Republicans that he thought the measure was
unnecessary and that he would campaign against it
should it make the ballot. However, the state
legislature has twice passed a marriage equality bill
that Schwarzenegger has vetoed both times.
Though
California's gay couples cannot legally wed, the state's
supreme court is currently deliberating over a
constitutional challenge to the ban on same-sex
marriage.
New
Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage,
Colorado-based Focus on the Family, and the Knights of
Columbus all contributed heavily to the Protect
Marriage campaign. (The Advocate)
