Calif. Senate approves legislation to allow same-sex marriage

SACRAMENTO -- The California Senate voted yesterday to allow homosexuals to marry, becoming the first legislative body in the United States to embrace the idea and setting off a scramble for three votes in the Assembly needed for full passage.

Almost completely along party lines, the Democrat-controlled Senate approved the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would make marriage a civil contract between two persons rather than a man and a woman. The measure passed by the minimum number of necessary votes, 21 to 15, after a sometimes personal debate in which both sides acknowledged the momentous nature the change would denote.

Senator Sheila Kuehl, a Democrat and one of six openly gay legislators in Sacramento, said allowing homosexuals to marry ''unchains a community that has participated in this state since its inception."

With only a week left before lawmakers adjourn for the year, the measure faces a tougher fight in the Assembly, which defeated the proposal in June. Signaling a likely veto even if it does pass, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's spokeswoman said he preferred to let California's judges sort out the legality of gay marriage, which is the topic of a case on appeal.

Nonetheless, advocates said the vote was a milestone toward making California the first state where elected representatives decide to allow homosexuals to marry. Massachusetts is the only state that allows such marriages, but that was decreed by the state's highest court. Vermont and Connecticut permit civil unions.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, a San Francisco Democrat who is the proposal's chief sponsor, said, ''We're looking for three votes, and I can't tell you today who the three will be, but I think the power of the success coming from the floor of the Senate today will give us the necessary momentum and encouragement to do what we all know is the right thing to do."

Opponents of gay marriage decried the vote as a repudiation of the will of the electorate, which five years ago passed Proposition 22 declaring that California would only recognize marriages between a man and a woman. They said that legislators cannot undo a law passed by 61 percent of the public without putting it before the electorate again.

These efforts come as the state's appellate courts weigh whether to uphold a San Francisco judge's ruling in March that the state's current marriage law illegally discriminates. The case is expected to reach the California Supreme Court next year.

Schwarzenegger's spokeswoman, Margita Thompson, said that although the governor supports domestic partnerships, he did not agree with legislatively allowing gay marriage.