California Homicide Investigators Association Sacramento


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California Homicide Investigators Association Sacramento

California Homicide Investigators Association Sacramento

California voters will be asked to decide whether same-sex marriage will remain legal in the state, or to approve a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and woman, on Election Day 2008. The fight for or against Prop 8 has become especially heated in the last few weeks before November 4, especially among LGBT voters. But what is Prop 8, and how did it become the hot-button issue on California’s ballot?

Same-Sex Marriage in California: A Brief History

One of the most liberal states in the Union, California boasts a long history of LGBT equality initiatives and inclusionary laws. Until 1977, legal statutes regarding marriages used language that was gender-neutral; that year, the California legislature amended the state’s Family Code to specify that “marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between a man and a woman.” In 2000, voters approved a ballot measure, Proposition 22, which further stated that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

In February and March 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declared that banning same-sex marriage violated the state constitution and began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. These licenses were later invalidated by the state Supreme Court. In 2005 and 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the pro-gay-marriage Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, claiming that it was the courts’ or voters’ responsibility to decide the measure, not the legislature’s.