GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that he won't reconsider his decision to veto a bill legalizing gay marriage and will keep vetoing the measure as long as lawmakers send it to him.
The Republican governor said he won't change his position unless voters overturn an anti-gay marriage initiative that Californians adopted in 2000.


“It would be wrong for the people to vote for something and for me to then overturn it,� Schwarzenegger said. “So they can send this bill down as many times as they want, I won't do it.�
The bill would redefine marriage as a civil contract between two people, but would still let religious groups refuse to sanction the unions.

Schwarzenegger vetoed a gay marriage bill in 2005, citing the 61 percent of voters who favored Proposition 22 in March 2000.

He announced in February that he would veto the bill again if it reached his desk this year. Despite the announcement, lawmakers approved it before adjourning last week.

Schwarznegger has until Oct. 14 to act on the measure.

Geoff Kors, executive director of the gay rights organization Equality California, said Proposition 22 only bars California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed outside California.

The gay marriage bill, by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would amend a different section of law that covers marriages performed in California.

Kors said he hopes Schwarzenegger sticks by earlier comments that he will abide by the state Supreme Court's ultimate decision on whether California's ban on same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. The high court's ruling could come next year.

“We're extremely disappointed he is taking a position on the bill without meeting with a single lesbian-gay family, as we have asked him to do the last two years,� Kors said. “How would he feel if this was a bill affecting who he could marry?�

Schwarzenegger's comments were in response to a question during a Capitol news conference on an endorsement of his health care plan by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.