Twist fuels Calif. gay marriage fight
San Diego mayor's shift energizes Prop. 8 supporters
LOS ANGELES - San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders had promised to oppose same-sex marriage. Then, last fall, hours before he was supposed to veto a City Council motion supporting gay marriage, he called a news conference at which he broke into tears.
One of his daughters was gay, he said, and he just couldn't tell her she did not have the right to get married.
The about-face stunned political observers and energized opponents of same-sex marriage who felt Sanders had betrayed them. It was only one of the twists on the path to the November ballot for Proposition 8, which, if passed, would amend the state constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Other milestones included a significant boost from ministers and an assist from an out-of-state conservative group that sent an operative to San Diego to raise money.
Opponents of same-sex marriage say they began preparing for the amendment campaign not long after San Francisco issued the nation's first same-sex marriage licenses in February 2004.
During the so-called Winter of Love, officials in San Francisco married more than 4,000 gay and lesbian couples, prompting euphoria and outrage nationwide. Mayor Gavin Newsom said the California Constitution gave him the right to perform the marriages. The state Supreme Court disagreed and invalidated them because of Proposition 22, the 2000 ballot initiative that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman, and other marriage laws that have long been on the state's books.
Gay rights activists decided to challenge the constitutionality of the state's marriage laws.
Opponents of gay marriage, meanwhile, decided California needed a constitutional amendment that would put the matter out of judges' reach, according to Andrew Pugno, a legal adviser to the Protect Marriage coalition.
Until 2007, efforts to put an amendment on the ballot faltered.
By fall 2007, some opponents of same-sex marriage were becoming worried. Court-watchers decided the Supreme Court would probably hear the challenge to the state's marriage laws in early 2008. Opponents worried that if the court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage - which it did - they might not collect enough signatures in time to get the matter onto the ballot until at least 2010.
Then came the San Diego mayor's public about-face. Although some viewed the mayor's decision as moving and heartfelt, others were outraged.
It turned out to be the boost Protect Marriage needed.
A few weeks later, about 200 pastors gathered in San Diego County to "respond to the mayor's about-face," according to one pastor, Jim Garlow.
As they push forward into the next phase of the campaign, some opponents of same-sex marriage still credit Sanders with helping them, however inadvertently, get where they are today. 