Schwarzenegger vows to fight constitutional ban on gay marriages

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed Friday to oppose an initiative banning gay marriage in the state constitution, calling any such effort "a total waste of time."

The Republican governor has twice vetoed gay marriage bills because he wanted the state Supreme Court to decide the issue and did not want to reverse the intent of voters who approved a ban in 2000.

A conservative coalition has raised nearly $1.4 million to place an even stronger state constitutional ban on the November ballot that could supersede the court's ruling, which is expected later this year.

Schwarzenegger, speaking Friday at a Log Cabin Republicans convention in San Diego, said he would fight that constitutional initiative and predicted its demise.

"Well, first of all, I think that it will never happen in California because I think that California people are much further along on that issue," Schwarzenegger said, according to an audio recording. "And No. 2, I will always be there to fight against that because it should never happen."

The governor's comments were met with a standing ovation from about 170 people at the national convention of gay and lesbian Republicans, said James Vaughn, director of Log Cabin Republicans of California.

"This is a historic pronouncement because no (sitting) Republican governor has come out against an anti-gay marriage initiative in California," Vaughn said.

Proponents of the initiative accused the governor of being inconsistent on the gay marriage issue. They are hoping to collect 1.1 million signatures by an April 28 deadline to qualify the initiative. Backers include religious-based organizations and nearly two-thirds of GOP state legislators, according to the "Protect Marriage" Web site.

"It's certainly a contradiction in the sense that he vetoed the legislation twice," said Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, representing numerous churches. "I think people are not going to look to him for family values guidance because of the mixed messages he has sent in the past, where he would veto the marriage bill but sign many other homosexual bills."

Sheldon said proponents were "very close" to qualifying the initiative for the ballot. On their Web site, organizers asked for volunteers to process petitions this weekend at a church in Chino.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, author of both gay marriage bills blocked by the governor, said he did not see Schwarzenegger's remarks as a contradiction from his past actions, calling a constitutional ban a different issue.

"Of course we were all very disappointed with the two vetoes of our marriage equality bills in recent years," Leno said. "But it's very heartening to hear the governor state unequivocally he will oppose any attempt to amend discrimination into our state constitution. It's an important statement for him to make."

Schwarzenegger has said that he believes the courts should decide the same-sex marriage issue and that he opposed a federal constitutional ban floated in 2004.

The Austrian-born governor joked Friday there should be a U.S. constitutional amendment allowing naturalized citizens to run for president, but not a state constitutional amendment on gay marriage.

"That's a total waste of time," he said.

Sheldon said he does not believe the governor's opposition would hurt the ballot-box chances of a constitutional ban.

"He decides based on what side of the bed he got up on," Sheldon said. "On many things, he's not a principled person."

But Geoffrey Kors, executive director for Equality California, said he believes the governor could help convince a moderate bloc of independents and Republicans.

"Unfortunately, the gay rights issues have tended to break on party lines, so having the Republican governor and Democratic Legislature together should have a tremendous impact," he said.

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