Showdown Brewing Over Gay Marriage in California

Sun February 22, 2004 07:34 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California?s attorney general will go to court as soon as possible to defend a state law defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

A lawsuit could pit the state against the city of San Francisco, which has sanctioned thousands of same-sex weddings since just before the Feb. 14 Valentine?s Day weekend.

?We think it?s very important to have this issue resolved as quickly as possible for the people of California, as well as for the couples who have obtained these marriage licenses,? Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for a Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said. ?We?re going to court as soon as possible to defend state law.?

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped up his rhetoric against gay weddings Friday, sending Lockyer, a Democrat, a letter ordering him to take ?immediate steps? to end same-sex matrimony.

A second Superior Court judge had refused to halt the weddings, authorized by newly elected San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Gay marriages have been a hot-button U.S. political issue in recent weeks. Besides the weddings in San Francisco, the highest court in Massachusetts issued a ruling compelling the state to recognize marriages between homosexuals.

Some conservatives have said President Bush will push to amend the U.S. constitution to ban gay marriage. Sen. John Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to run against Bush, is from Massachusetts.

Lockyer has 30 days to respond to a lawsuit filed against the state by the city of San Francisco on Thursday, Jordan said. In that lawsuit, the city argues that California?s Proposition 22, which state voters approved in 2000 defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman, violates the state Constitution.

Lockyer has said he will defend Proposition 22 in court.

City officials have not yet decided how they would respond to a potential lawsuit against the municipality.

?To the best of my knowledge the state hasn?t initiated litigation,? said Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for city attorney Dennis Herrera. ?It?s premature to comment.?

There have been almost 3,200 gay marriages performed in San Francisco since Feb. 12.