Arnold’s Fight?
Apparently Republican Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came out against a ban on same sex marriage, although it seems a bit soft to us: “Schwarzenegger came out against a ballot measure circulating in California to add a gay marriage ban to the State Constitution. Stating that he “will always be there to fight against that,†Schwarzenegger made one of his first pubic statements about the initiative constitutional amendment in circulation.” [Boi From Troy]
I love this guy. Not only does he want to piss off CA’s gay community by vetoing gay marriage bills twice…but now he apparently wants to anger the conservatives in the state as well. It’s hard for me to him seriously. Regardless, it’s going to be a very tricky political field in California as we balance a pending California Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, voter propositions banning gay marriage, and a national presidential election that could become engrossed in the subject.
So, he doesn’t want to ban gay marriage, but he’ll still veto any attempt to successfully legalize it?
Why did California elect this man twice?
It’s a fairly consistent – albeit rather timid – stance on his part. The proposed amendment would ban all same-sex unions. And Schwarzenegger considers that unacceptable.
Schwarzenegger wants to maintain the Domestic Partnership (civil uinion) scheme that has been law in California since 2003. But he doesn’t want to “upgrade” those unions into same-sex marriages, since that’s far more controversial.
John:
There are two initiatives being circulated right now. One would ban only “marriage” and the other would undo domestic partnerships as well. I don’t think Schwarzenegger made a distinction. I think he is just very confused about his position. He stated that the people of California are “far ahead” on this issue, yet his reason for the veto was that it was against the will of the people of California. Just doesn’t make sense.
Close John…
Schwarzenegger yesterday said he would fight a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage.
He previously vetoed bills which would legalize gay marriage from the legislature on the grounds that they conflicted with statute passed by the voters (Proposition 22). He has not changed his position on that.
He did say, however, that he would fight a constitutional amendment, which would tie the courts hands, so that is a good thing!