July 27, 2005

Urgent Alert!

AB 849, Same-Sex Marriage Bill, coming to California Senate!

YOUR URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED TO OPPOSE THIS BILL!
IT IS A SEROUS THREAT TO MARRIAGE IN CALIFORNIA!

Action Needed

Supporters of traditional marriage need to immediately contact their California state senator to oppose AB 849. Please urge them to oppose this technically illegal bill, the resurrected version of AB-19, which was defeated by the Assembly in June and clearly violates the will of the majority of Californians.

Also, please forward this alert on to as many others as you can and encourage them to contact their senators as well.

On a special page on our Web site we have a feature that lets you determine who your senator is by entering your address and you can pull up complete contact information for your senator. We also provide a feature on this page that will allow you to send a suggested e-mail or letter to to your senator with just the click of your mouse. It takes just a few minutes to do this with just a couple of mouse clicks. Click here or, if you would like more information, we have provided additional brief background below.

Brief Background

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.

Complete contact information for your senator is provided on a special page on our Web site. This page also has a feature that allows you to e-mail a suggested message, which you can modify, to your senator, with one click of your mouse. It takes just a couple of minutes.

Please join us in defending marriage in California by contacting your senator now.
Thank you for your help in this important issue.

One voice at a time, we will make a difference in California!

Please Take Action Immediately!

Please Forward This Alert On To Others!

United Families California • PO Box 7653 • La Verne, CA 91750-9998