It didn't pass! :-(

Sacramento, California) Supporters of a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in California are hoping 'third time lucky' after the measure suffered its second defeat in as many days on Thursday.

The bill will be put to a third vote Friday in the legislature. This morning, if was rejected by a vote of 37-35, the same margin by which it lost on Thursday night.

The duplication of the vote shows that despite pleas from LGBT civil rights groups and legislators who support the measure.

The bill's author, Assemblymember Mark Leno ( D-San Francisco), said he hopes to use the remaining time before Friday's vote to try to sway the eight lawmakers who did not vote to support the legislation. Under Assembly rules any bill up for approval must get a minimum of 41 votes. Abstentions or absentees are counted as no's.

All of the Assembly's Republican members voted against the bill. During debate on the legislation several GOP lawmakers described the bill as an illegal usurpation of the will a majority of California voters expressed five years when they approved Proposition 22, an anti-gay marriage ballot initiative.

"If you want to destroy the law, mock it, call it names. If you don't have the courage to go back to the people in the proper way, tell a big lie," said Assemblyman Jay La Suer (R-La Mesa). "This has nothing to do with discrimination. It has everything to do with the destruction of the moral fiber of this nation."
Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), one of six openly gay and lesbian members of the Legislature delivered an impassioned plea to have the bill passed.

"You cannot give me, if we are all created equal, an argument that says I cannot marry my partner," said Goldberg who has been in a relationship with the same woman for 26 years.

"You cannot tell me there is any definition other to say I am not really a human being like all the rest of you heterosexual human beings. ... Unless you are willing to look me in the face and say I'm not a human being just like you are, you have no right to deny me marriage in the state of California or anywhere else."

The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act would require local clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples but allow people opposed to gay marriage to refuse to conduct weddings.

The measure has the support of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and other key Democrats. Last month the California Democratic Party passed a resolution supporting same-sex marriage. (story)

So far Gov. Schwarzenegger has sent mixed messages about whether he would sign the legislation if it were passed.

In a January meeting with the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle Schwarzenegger suggested that this may not be the best time to push gay marriage, saying that a legislative push to fully recognize marriage rights for gays might backfire.

"Eventually in a few years from now, you can readdress it again and see what the people of California think,'' he told the paper. "You cannot force-feed those kind of things.''

Last year in a Tonight Show appearance Schwarzenegger said gay marriage would be "fine with me" if it were enshrined in state law or ruled legal by the courts. (story)

The issue of same-sex marriage also is slowly heading toward the California Supreme Court. Last month a San San Francisco judge ruled that state laws preventing gay marriage are illegal. (story)

Tuesday, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed an appeal in the case.

Meanwhile, a conservative group called the "Voters' Right to Protect Marriage Initiative" has begun collecting signatures to have a proposed amendment to the California Constitution banning same-sex marriage placed on the 2006 ballot. (story) If approved by voters it would not only bar gays and lesbians from marrying but also void the state's landmark domestic partner law.

Last week, LGBT groups and their supporters announced a broad coalition to combat the attempt to amend the Constitution. (story) On Monday, the nation's two largest LGBT civil rights groups announced a million dollar fundraising drive to help defeat the proposed amendment.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign announced they would donate up to $100,000 each as a challenge to encourage others to contribute.

The groups said they hoped to raise the $1 million by Labor Day.

California legislature to vote on gay marriage today

Keeping our fingers, toes, eyes and anything else crossed that this bill passes. It will be the first legislation of its kind -- passed voluntariliy by the lawmakers as opposed to by court order.