San Francisco Chronicle: For the second time in three years, the Legislature has approved a bill to give same-sex couples the right to marry in California, with Friday's Senate vote split almost along party lines and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expected to veto the measure as he did in 2005.The bill, AB43, is the third effort by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, to pass what he has termed a "gender-neutral marriage" bill. The act would amend California's Family Code to define marriage as a civil contract between two persons.
"Marriage is more than just a civil contract ... it is different from domestic partners, it's just different from civil unions - it means something," said state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, who presented the bill and was also the first openly gay person to be elected to the Legislature. "And because it means something, that's why it's been denied to us."
The bill seeks to make California the second state to legalize same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage became legal in 2004. Since then, some 8,000 couples have been married by the state. (More)
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