We encourage you to mail or fax a letter, since that has more impact
than an e-mail and some senators do not monitor their e-mails.
Simply follow these simple steps.
Step 1
Please enter the requested information in the boxes below. We will
use your address to identify your senator.
We will provide a suggested letter or text of an e-mail for you
to send (which you can also edit as you wish) which will be already
addressed to your senator. We will also automatically include your
name and address in the text of the suggested letter or e-mail.
It is important to provide your senator with this information so
that they know that you are one of their constituents and know where
to respond to your letter or fax.
None of the information you give us will be sold, traded, given
away or shared with any other organizations. See our privacy
policy.
In June, 2005, Assembly Bill 19 (Leno, D-San Francisco), which
would have legalized same-sex marriage in California was defeated
by four votes in the Assembly thanks to the many calls and e-mails
from defenders of marriage such as you.
Because AB-19 did not pass by the June 3rd deadline for bills to
be considered this year, it should have been dead for the remainder
of this legislative session. However, proponents of same-sex marriage
have used a parliamentary maneuver called “gut and amend”
to resurrect AB-19. This tactic involves taking an unrelated bill
that has already passed the Assembly, in this case AB-849, a marine
research bill, and gutting the original language and replacing it
with the text of AB-19.
This bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee recently and is
likely to be considered by the full Senate within a month. If it
is not defeated, it will go back to the Assembly even though the
original bill was defeated there previously. If it passes both houses
then it will find itself on the desk of the Governor by the beginning
of September.
Besides recognizing the fact that marriage needs to be preserved
in California between a man and a woman to promote a stable society
for the future of our children, one of the strong arguments against
this bill is that it is technically illegal under Article II, Section
10(c) in the California Constitution. In general terms this section
explains that the legislators have no authority to pass new legislation
in the face of an initiative statute, such as Prop. 22, which the
people have voted into law. This legislation (AB 19 and now AB 849),
if passed, will directly defy the will of the majority of Californians
who voted overwhelmingly for Proposition 22 in 2000 to keep marriage
in our state only between a man and a woman.
Our legislators have taken an oath to uphold our California Constitution
and to represent the people. They need to be held to this standard.
Recently Senator Gil Cedillo stated that “The people aren’t
always right,” in reference to Prop. 22 and in support of
passage for AB 849. The people vote their legislators into office
to represent the people, not to follow the will of special interest
groups.
|
