Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Devil in DoMA Details

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer released the official summary of the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. While this triggers signature gathering, the anti folk are not happy. It seems the summary is a bit too plain spoken for them.

"True to his liberal bias, but untrue to his constitutional duty, Bill Lockyer has dumped on us an inaccurate and prejudicial paragraph that is anything but impartial and fair as the law requires," carped one of the amendment's official sponsors. Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for Children and Families particularly objected to the summary noting that the amendment would strip rights from registered domestic partners of any type.

We have not seen the whole 100-word summary yet and shall post it when it is available.

The news report is mostly the whining from the proposers. It is true that the differences start at the title – Marriage. Elimination of Domestic Partnership Rights, instead of The Voters' Right to Protect Marriage Initiative. It the issue was less serious, that form of PR bluster would be amusing.

The summary does note that the amendment for the 2006 election would restrict marriage to one man and one woman in the state. However, it also notes that the amendment would void and restrict registered domestic partner rights and obligations, including inheritance, adoption, hospital visitation and insurance benefits.

The anti folk have 598,105 signatures to gather. They would very much like voters to think DoMA and ignore the man behind the curtain.

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