[1]WASHINGTON (BP)–Pro-family groups are outraged that a California domestic partnership bill has passed another committee in the state legislature. AB 25, authored by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, awards over a dozen marriage rights to homosexual couples.
“We’re pleased that the bill continues to have momentum, and we look forward to this bill being enacted into law this year,” Alan LoFaso, a spokesperson with Migden’s office, told CNSNews.com after the assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee passed the bill April 18.
California law already provides same-sex couples with hospital visitation rights, health insurance coverage for public employees and a “domestic partners” registry in the secretary of state’s office.
AB 25 would extend “basic protections to lesbian, gay, and senior citizen families that register as domestic partners.” It provides for expanded health insurance benefits, unemployment insurance, sick leave, wrongful death damages, disability insurance, inheritance rights and stepparent adoption among other things.
Randy Thomasson, executive director of Campaign for California Families, a leading family issues organization, said the bill “undermines marriage,” robbing it of its “specialness and uniqueness.”
“It is unjust and unconscionable to take marriage rights and give them to people who aren’t married. AB 25 creates more than a dozen homosexual marriage rights, undermining this sacred institution and overturning the will of the people.”
[2]The people of California weighed in on same-sex marriage issue last year, when they passed Proposition 22, an initiative that expressly defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
Supporters of same-sex marriage accuse their conservative opponents of bigotry for denying them the same legal rights and public affirmation that legal marriage confers on heterosexual couples. They say conservatives are engaged in a mean-spirited campaign to punish people (homosexuals) that they just plain don’t like.
But conservatives base their opposition to same-sex marriage on longstanding tradition and strongly held moral and religious beliefs. They see the push for same-sex rights as an assault on the family, the basic foundation of society. And they say Democrats are siding with anti-family forces.
“The California Democratic party is in the hands of the homosexual activists,” Thomasson said.
“They’re pushing for homosexual marriage, the civil unions legislation. And they are pushing this omnibus domestic partner bill to take 14 marriage rights and give them to non-spouses, primarily homosexual partners. And they barreled this bill through a very liberal committee. It’s going forward, and the pro-family citizens of California need to rise up now for there to be a chance to stop it,” Thomasson said.
He added that the governor would be wise to veto the bill if it comes across his desk.
“Gov. Gray Davis is swinging in the wind over the energy crisis, and he’s not looking good already. Does he want to have the record of being at the helm as California’s energy supplies spiral and also be responsible for the destruction of marriage?” Thomasson asked. “I don’t think so.”
Thomasson said his group plans to “expose the darkness, and to reach the people in key assembly districts around the state and also reach people who can contact the governor. These are parts of the state where homosexual marriage is anathema, where the protection of marriage initiative [Proposition 22] passed overwhelmingly last year and where there could be decisive influence put upon … the key votes, especially on the floor of the state assembly.”
He said in the past two years, his group has run 44 full-page newspaper ads.
“It costs money, but it’s very effective, because it can be used to put fear, intimidation and confusion into the hearts of the legislators we are targeting, legislators who ought to know better but they intend to vote in favor of the radical homosexual agenda — that is, until their constituents rise up once they are informed,” Thomasson said.
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Hunter is the evening editor for CNSNews.com. Used by permission.