On Sept. 20, LGBT parents and their children delivered to the offices of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over 40,000 postcards signed by Californians from across the state, urging him to support marriage equality. The LGBT families urged the governor to sign AB 849, “The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act,” authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno and sponsored by Equality California. The families also invited the governor to meet with them so that he can see that all families are based on love and commitment, and that all families need the legal protections and recognition of civil marriage.
Earlier this month, the California Legislature made history when it passed AB 849, becoming the first state legislature in the country to pass a bill ensuring marriage equality. Schwarzenegger has stated that he intends to veto the measure once it reaches his desk.
“Without the right to marry, my children and those of our over 550 family members, are being raised to believe that their families don’t count,” said Judy Appel, Executive Director of Our Family Coalition. “On behalf of Our Family Coalition, my partner and I invite the governor and his family to come to our house for tea and to meet our family. Perhaps if he can see just how like any other family ours is, how similar our day-to-day lives are, and how great our kids are, he will no longer be afraid to sign AB 849 into law.”
“It seems only fair that Governor Schwarzenegger take the time to reconsider his initial inclination to veto our families and, instead, meet us—the children of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents—face to face so he can better understand the discriminatory impact such a decision has,” said Beth Teper, Executive Director of COLAGE, a national organization that advocates on behalf of the millions of children, youth, and adults who have LGBT parents and families. “He simply has to do what’s right and change his mind.”
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, almost 100,000 same-sex households are raising children in California, a number many experts believe to be a drastic undercount. The potential harm, instability, and vulnerability created by the state’s denial of the right to marry are magnified in families with children.
“AB 849 would provide critical legal protections to LGBT parents and their children,” said Geoff Kors, Executive Director of Equality California. “These children deserve to grow up knowing that their families are no less worthy of dignity and respect than any other family.”
Bay Area children and families delivered over 10,000 post cards in red wagons to the governor’s San Francisco district office. Other LGBT families delivered cards to the governor’s offices in Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, and Fresno. The action is part of “Twelve Days to Equality,” a statewide project spearheaded by Leno and Equality California to convince the governor to sign AB 849. The event is co-sponsored by Our Family Coalition and COLAGE.
Geoff Kors of Equality California and Leno were joined by Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, and Alice Huffman, California President of the NAACP, in a TV commercial for the bill that aired on Wednesday morning.
Another action taken was to phone First Lady Maria Shriver, who has been an ardent advocate for military families. Activists were asked to phone her and ask her to speak to the governor about these families who have sacrificed for the freedoms they themselves are denied. More than 20,000 individuals in same-sex couples in California are veterans, according to the Williams Project at UCLA School of Law. And the number of gay men and lesbians who are veterans is likely an understatement of the actual number, due to discriminatory attitudes toward LGBT people in the military.
Martha McDevitt-Pugh, founder and chair of the Netherlands-based Love Exiles Foundation, began her bicycle journey on Sept. 21 at Lake Merritt to arrive at the state capital building in Sacramento early morning on Sept. 23, delivering letters from Love Exiles to Schwarzenegger requesting that he sign the bill. Her own message was: “I had to move to Holland to marry my wife. I wish I could have gotten married at home.”
