" Noreen Evans (Dem - 7th) voted for this bill in Committee. I find it offensive that she would support a bill that is opposed by the majority of California voters. "

" Three of the historical claims made by opponents of same-sex marriage are demonstrably untrue. CLAIM -- the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman goes back thousands of years. FACT -- The Judeo-Christian tradition does not speak with one voice on marriage. Polygamy, divorce and concubines are all part of the Old Testament tradition. The most commonly approved form of marriage in the past (and the one mentioned most often in the first five books of the Old Testament) was polygamy - one man, many women. Jesus broke with older religious traditions in prohibiting divorce for men as well as for women. But in doing so, he also challenged the traditional right of a man to take a second wife if the first wife was sterile. Ever since, the validity of a marriage in the Western tradition has not been dependent on ability to procreate. CLAIM -- The Judeo-Christian heritage has always seen marriage as a sacred relationship that must be defended above all others. FACT -- Christianity made marriage a sacrament in 1215, only about 800 years ago. CLAIM -- marriage has endured for thousands of years without change. FACT -- It is heterosexual couples who have been tampering with marriage for the past 200 years. Heterosexuals repealed the old laws mandating wives' subordination to husbands and prohibiting divorce. It was a lawsuit involving a heterosexual Connecticut couple that led the Supreme Court to overturn laws forbidding the sale of contraceptives, thus giving married people the right to decide not to have children. Heterosexuals also pioneered assisted reproduction, allowing couples who cannot have children to become parents anyway. And it was heterosexuals who repealed the legal definition of marriage as the union of a husband who must play one role in the home and a wife who must play a different one. Until the 1980s, courts said that the husband must support the family; the wife had no such duty. Wives were charged with keeping house, rearing children and providing other personal services. That is why a man could not be charged with marital rape and a woman could not sue for loss of personal services in the event of her husband's death. Only in the 1980s did courts redefine marriage as a union of two people with reciprocal, not complementary, duties. BOTTOM LINE -- Once marriage came to be seen as an institution bringing together two individuals based on mutual affection and equality, without regard to rigidly defined gender roles or the ability to procreate, it's not surprising that gays and lesbians said, "That now describes our relationships too, so why can't we marry?" If you don't like these changes in the institution, blame your grandparents, not the gay and lesbian couples seeking entry into this new model of marriage. (excerpts from an article by Stephanie Coontz) Stephanie Coontz teaches history at The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Wash. She wrote "Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage" (Viking, 2006). "

" No better way to guarantee a strong conservative turnout at the next election. Remember, CA voters shot down gay marriage by a wide margin. The CA State Supreme Court even shot it down. Way to go lib's, way to help swing CA GOP in 08'. "

" Then bigamy and polygamy should also be legalized, if they aren't already due to the CA Confidential Marriage Certificate! A common tool to avoid bigamy charges. Ca state law allows Confidential Marriages with a minimum of fuss: no marriage license, no blood test, no three-day waiting period and, best of all, no public record that the marriage ever took place. growing numbers of couples are using the law to avoid red tape and keep word of the marriages from parents and friends. In 1972, only 532 such weddings were performed in Los Angeles County and adjacent Orange County. Last year it was 12,212. 'It's one of the greatest laws,' says Edie Steinmetz, owner of the Doves of Happiness Wedding Chapel in Inglewood, a leader in the state's $700,000-a-year secret-marriage industry. 'It allows a lot of people to get married who otherwise would not be able to'—including the already married. Couples fill in a confidential marriage form, which is filed with the county clerk and is then unavailable for inspection by anyone. That makes it easy for applicants’ intent on bigamy. Says William St. John, Orange County clerk: 'There is nothing on the form that requires a couple to say how long they have been living together, if they had a previous marriage or divorce, and if the divorce is finalized.' So a bisexual CA man can have a wife in a conventional mariage and a gay spouse in a CA Confidential Marriage Certificate. You develop and live two lives. One secret life, with the blessings of the Ca Confidential Marriage Certificate, knows all about you and still loves you, the bigamist/polygamist gay spouse. Another life is your public mask who knows only the mask, one wife. That's why Jimmy Olson was Superman's sidekick. "