Jun 03, 2005  |  By: EARTHA MELZE  | COMMENTS     

politicians flushing our precious vote on marriage down the drain.”

Initiative proponents have begun fund-raising, expect to begin circulating petitions in July and to have the measure on the ballot in a June 2006 election.

According to Equality California, a statewide gay civil rights group, a coalition of more than 200 religious, labor and civil liberties groups called Equality for All has formed to oppose the proposed constitutional amendment. In news conferences in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, the group said, that the ballot measure, if passed, would hurt millions of same-sex couples and their families and others by denying them essential legal protections.

“The effort to target one category of people — in this case gays and lesbians — for reduced rights has profound implications for all of us,” Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council said. “What is the next group that is deemed so threatening that their basic rights should be rolled back?”

National groups offer funds
The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign announced that they would donate up to $100,000 each as a fund-raising challenge to raise $1 million by Labor Day to defeat the proposed amendment.

If AB 19 passes in a future session and becomes law, it is possible that same-sex marriages could begin and then be suspended again if a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage passes later, Cox said.

Cox said that it is also possible that the move to amend the constitution would lose steam after same-sex marriages happen and people realize that they aren’t having a damaging effect on society.

Cox said that she believes given the option same-sex couples will chose marriage over domestic partnership, but, she said, it is not clear what AB 19 would do to the existing domestic partner registry.

California’s domestic partnership system extends a broad range of rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples registered as domestic partners.

Earlier this year a bill known as AB 205 took effect, expanding the rights granted to domestic partners so that they receive nearly all of the benefits extended to married couples by the state.

Jeff Winkler has been with his partner for nearly six years and was married for the brief period during which same-sex marriages were performed in California.

Winkler said that he and his partner have created wills and medical power of attorney documents in an attempt to compensate for the lesser legal status of their domestic partnership.

Winkler said that the rights granted to him and his partner under the domestic partnership l