August 29, 2005

Urgent Alert!

Same-Sex Marriage to be Voted On Again!

Please Take Action Now!

Votes in the Senate and Assembly Likely Within Days!

Summary of the Situation

In violation of the provision in our state constitution which prohibits the legislature from overturning a law passed by the people, the 2005 Legislature is still trying to legalize same-sex marriage in California. When we passed Proposition 22 several years ago, we clearly defined in the law that marriage in California is only the union of a man and a woman.

Using a parliamentary maneuver, these anti-marriage legislaters have resurrected the bill we killed in June and are trying to ram same-sex marriage through the legislature in these closing days. (More background details are provided below.)

YOUR URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED TO STOP THIS BILL IN THE ASSEMBLY! IT IS A SERIOUS THREAT BECAUSE IT WOULD PERMANENTLY CHANGE MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY IN CALIFORNIA!

Please act now! Key votes will occur in the next few days!

PLEASE TAKE THESE ACTIONS IMMEDIATELY:

1. No matter where you live in California, e-mail or call the key Assembly members listed below. Urge them to vote “NO” on AB-849 or abstain from voting altogether. We only defeated this bill in the Assembly in June by 4 votes and these members are under intense pressure from the anti-marriage forces to change their votes and support same-sex marriage. Their contact information is listed below and we also provide a special feature on our Web site that allows you to e-mail them with just the click of a mouse. We provide a suggested message to them which you can edit. It takes just a few minutes.

2. Contact as many others as you can to urge them to also contact these Assembly members in support of marriage. You can forward this alert on or we also have a feature on our Web site that allows you to easily contact them.

THE SENATE WILL MOST LIKELY VOTE ON THIS BILL TODAY OR TOMORROW AND IT IS EXPECTED TO PASS. IT WILL THEN GO IMMEDIATELY TO THE ASSEMBLY WHERE IT WILL ALSO BE VOTED ON VERY QUICKLY.

OUR BEST CHANCE TO STOP THIS BILL IS IN THE ASSEMBLY. BECAUSE IT WILL COME TO A VOTE SO QUICKLY, WE ARE URGING YOU TO IMMEDIATELY CONTACT THESE ASSEMBLY MEMBERS LISTED BELOW.

Brief Background

Currently, a group of anti-marriage state legislators has used a parliamentary maneuver to resurrect AB-19 to legalize same-sex marriage in California which we killed twice in the Assembly in June. The bill to do this, now designated AB-849, has been reported out of committee and will likely be passed by the state Senate on Tuesday, August 29th or Wednesday, August 30th.

If it passes (which is expected because the Senate is even more liberal than the Assembly) it will then go immediately to the Assembly for a vote, perhaps as soon as the next day. We defeated the bill twice in the Assembly in June by only 4 votes and the marriage opponents have been putting intense pressure on a small group of pro-marriage Assembly members to switch their vote to support legalizing same-sex marriage.

As we have outlined in previous alerts, AB-19, which would have legalized same-sex marriage in California, was defeated on several votes in the Assembly in early June. If passed, this bill would have directly defied 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.

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 resurrected bill will be considered by the Senate and if it passes as expected, it will go back to the Assembly even though the original bill was defeated there previously. This maneuver is not uncommon but it is hardly ever used to resurrect a bill that has already been defeated by the Assembly.

THIS PARLIAMENTARY MANEUVER HAS CREATED A SERIOUS THREAT TO MARRIAGE IN CALIFORNIA!

All of this action will happen very quickly. It may be no more than a day between the time the bill passes the Senate and it is considered by the Assembly. As it did last time when we defeated AB 19, the fate of marriage in California will rest in the hands of a few members of the Assembly who stopped AB 19 last time. These members have been under intense pressure to change their votes and support same-sex marriage.

PLEASE ACT NOW!

All Californians, whether or not they are constituents of these members of the Assembly, should contact all of them immediately. Time is short so please call or e-mail. Phone numbers for these key Assembly members is listed below. You can also e-mail all of them with the click of your mouse using a special feature on our Web site. It takes just a couple of minutes.

Please Take Action Immediately!

Please Forward This Alert On To Others!

Contact Information for Key Assembly Members

No matter where you live, please contact these key Assembly members immediately and urge them to vote no on AB 849 or at least abstain from voting. You can easily send an e-mail with just the click of your to all of them who have e-mail addresses through a feature on our Web site. Click here.

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