Waiting until the last minute, late yesterday Governor Schwarzenegger took action on the hundreds of bills sitting on his desk. Each of the bills signed into law will have an impact on our state, but two in particular will impact our society and our children. SB 54 (Leno) will require California to recognize all out-of-state same-sex marriages performed before Proposition 8 was passed last year. SB 572 (Leno) will require the governor to declare every May 22 Harvey Milk Day.
Proposition 8 was such a controversial and emotional topic, you’d think the governor would be wise enough to step back from the issue for a while. But instead, he flouted the will of the people who have twice overwhelmingly declared that they intend only traditional marriage be recognized in California. By signing SB 54, Governor Schwarzenegger told Californians that he has no regard for their decision. That is a dangerous precedent to set for the governor and his successors. Distrust of elected officials is already running high and the governor just reinforced the out-of-touch, despotic perception many now have of their government.
The governor’s signing of SB 572 is rather puzzling given the fact that he vetoed identical language last year. In his veto message the governor clearly stated that he though Milk should be honored in San Francisco, where he had his most impact and is regarded as a local historical figure. Parents were rightfully outraged when they discovered that Harvey Milk Day includes celebratory exercises in public schools for all school children. The public expression against this bill was so great that the governor’s office actually had a special phone line dedicated to calls regarding the topic. Obviously the governor changed his mind on Harvey Milk Day, but in changing his mind, he violated the trust of thousands of parents who will undoubtedly pull their children from school every May 22.
By signing SB 54 and SB 572, the governor also sends the message that he doesn’t take seriously the monumental economic problems facing our state. Neither of these two bills will help pull our state out of its current nosedive. Instead, focusing on Harvey Milk Day and undermining Proposition 8 tells voters that the governor and legislature are more intent on promoting a social agenda than solving the state’s real problems. That is a violation of the public trust.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Prop 8 will be defeated in Fed court on an equal protection and separate-is-not-equal basis. Their nutjob lawyer is going up against David Boies and Ted Olson – kinda like a fistfight btwn me vs. Muhammad Ali in his prime.
Maybe if the Republicans stopped worrying about who likes who and instead worried about gun rights they might get some support.
The Governor just signed AB962, which stops sportsmen from buying surplus mailorder ammo, etc. without a heap of paperwork. And no Republican legislator carried much of any achieveable, passable incremental gun legislation that we CA gunnies could have exploited.
Call me when the Republicans are relevant again. This Prop 8 idiocy just baits a large swath of population against you. (In fact if Prop 8 were run again on the ballot, it’d lose – LGBT crowd can probably raise more moeny than the out-of-CA Mormon church can without getting into further trouble.
Bill Wiese
San Jose CA