California wars?

No matter how you look at it, the situation for California's gay and lesbian people is a mess. The state's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger again vetoed a law legalising same-sex marriage in California, doing so at 5:30 on Friday afternoon. He vetoed a similar bill in 2005, saying the voters should decide. After the 2006 elections returned supporters of the bill, the California legislature again passed the measure, and again Schwarzenegger said the voters should decide. Maybe he didn't realise there had been an election in 2006.

He also claimed the state's Supreme Court needed to rule on challenge to a proposition that, he seems to think, banned gay marriage in California. But as gay journalist Rex Wockner has pointed out, it seems to have only banned California recognising same-sex marriages performed outside the state.

Wockner also notes that the state's Supreme Court could strike down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, citing the state constitution. If it does that, or if a Democratic Governor signs a new bill into law after Schwarzenegger leaves office in 2010, then far right activists are sure to try and pass an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. The wingnuts have also pledged to end the state's current “domestic partnership” legislation.

Some would argue that as a Republican, Schwarzenegger had no choice but to veto the bill, given the control of the party by far right christianists. But California isn't like the rest of America, and it doesn't have to do what the national Republican Party wants—the party needs California far more than California needs it. Speculation is that Schwarzenegger plans on running for the US Senate after his term as Governor expires and his veto is to prevent the far right christianists and other wingnuts from putting up a right wing challenger. Personally, I think this ignores the fact that these vetoes will help galvanise Democratic voters to defeat Schwarzenegger.

All of which means that the GLBT communities in California are in for a rocky few years. California is often America's laboratory, trying out ideas that eventually spread to the rest of the country. If the far right is ultimately successful in California, that could mean the march toward freedom and equality for GLBT people in other states will be delayed even more, and justice delayed is very much justice denied.