Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed two gay rights bills, one honoring late activist Harvey Milk and another recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states.
-- From "Schwarzenegger signs gay rights bills" by Dan Smith, Sacramento Bee 10/12/09
In the last of hundreds of bill actions taken before midnight Sunday, Schwarzenegger approved the two bills by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.
The governor last year vetoed the measure declaring May 22 a state day of recognition for [homosexual hero] Milk, suggesting that the former San Francisco supervisor be honored locally. But he subsequently named him to the California Hall of Fame.
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From "California bill to recognize some same-sex marriages" CNN 10/12/09
Same-sex marriages performed elsewhere between June 16, 2008, and November 5, 2008, are to be legally recognized, as are in-state marriages performed during that time.
The end date represents when a ballot initiative, Proposition 8, added a ban on same-sex marriage to the state constitution.
Proposition 8 bars the state from recognizing any marriage performed outside the state outside those dates. The state Supreme Court ruled after the proposition passed that marriages performed before the ban would remain on the books.
But Senate Bill 54 splits a legal hair and requires the state to recognize such marriages as "unions," providing "the same legal protections that would otherwise be available to couples that enter into civil unions or domestic partnerships out-of-state," the governor said.
"The governor's signing of SB 54 illustrates his disregard for the sovereign authority of California's voting citizens," said Everett Rice, a spokesman for the California Family Council.
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