By The Associated Press
09.24.2009 2:35pm EDT
(San Francisco) A group pushed
ahead Thursday with a campaign to repeal California’s same-sex marriage ban,
even though some other gay rights organizations think it’s too soon for another
expensive ballot fight.
The new ballot proposal says
religious institutions would not be required to perform same-sex unions if it
conflicts with their beliefs. “The refusal to perform a marriage
under this provision shall not be the basis for lawsuit or liability, and shall
not affect the tax-exempt status of any religious denomination, church or other
religious institution,” reads the exemption, an attempt by Love Honor Cherish
to defuse one of the arguments Proposition 8 sponsors used to garner support
last fall. Submitting wording to the
California attorney general is the first step in qualifying a measure for an
election. Once the language is approved, backers would have until mid-April to
gather the 695,000 signatures needed to put the initiative on the November 2010
ballot. “Our group has said since last
November that we were going to go forward in November 2010, and we are living
up to that promise,” said John Henning, executive director of Love Honor Cherish,
a volunteer-run group. Since Proposition 8 eliminated the
right of gay couples to get married in California, gay marriage supporters have
been divided over how and when to try to win it back. The state’s largest gay rights
group, Equality California, joined the American Civil Liberties Union, the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and several other established groups in
arguing that before going back to the ballot, more work needs to be done to
change the minds of voters who favored the ban. Also working against reversing
Proposition 8 in 2010 is the fact that next year is a midterm election in which
Californians will elect a new governor. Conservatives typically turn out in
large numbers for midterm elections and will certainly be a larger share of the
overall electorate than they were during last year’s presidential election. Still, a dedicated cadre of
smaller groups has insisted that the disappointment and anger stirred by
Proposition 8’s passage, along with the legalization of gay marriage in Iowa,
Vermont and other states, could give them the momentum to pull off a victory
next year. Los Angeles-based Courage
Campaign, the most prominent group in the pro-2010 camp, has enlisted President
Barack Obama’s former deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, to chart a
course for a possible campaign. Before endorsing the proposal by
Love Honor Cherish or filing its own ballot language, Courage Campaign wants to
know if gay marriage supporters have the money, expertise and cooperation to
win. “We have said from the very
beginning that to go back to the ballot we need the research to help define the
path to victory, we need a governance structure that is clear and that can make
efficient decisions, we need a strong, smart campaign manager, and we need the finances,”
said Courage Campaign founder Rick Jacobs. Henning said he wanted to get the
process started this week so supporters have as much time as possible for
signature-gathering. If another group comes up with a different version that
seems to be more popular with activists and the electorate, Love Honor Cherish
would withdraw its initiative, he said. Geoffrey Farrow, a Roman Catholic
priest who was suspended from the ministry last year for opposing Proposition 8
in defiance of the church’s official stand, is one of the nine people who
signed up to be official proponents of the Love Honor Cherish initiative. He thinks the language clarifying
that churches would not be required to sanction same-sex marriages will boost
its chances of success. “This is about civil marriage, not
about religious marriage,” Farrow said. “In our society, even prisoners have a
right to marriage.”