Letters Project to Urge Governor Schwarzenegger to Sign AB 43 for Gender Neutral Marriage

By Jim Smith

My 'same-sex domestic partner' and I moved to California almost ten years ago and had twins by surrogacy five months ago. When the legislature passed AB 849, the "Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act" in 2005, I called the Governor's office several dozen times, but each conversation ended when my request for the same freedom to marry that everybody else has was digested into a tally mark.

When I heard that he might be getting another chance this September, I wanted to do something more substantial: something I could share with other people and the press, and something that might actually get through to the Governor. If he knew me and my family, it would be a lot harder to veto us. So I started to send a brief letter to the Governor every day, asking him to sign AB 43 for a different reason. Some are typewritten, some I do by hand, and occasionally I slip in a picture of my family for him to contemplate.

I've been keeping copies and documenting the process on my blog, "California needs AB 43". I have only received one reply from the Governor: a form letter (which inspired July 28).

I' m not sure where this will take me, but I do know that it has helped build my knowledge of the issues. For instance, before I started, I didn't know what to say to staffers who said signing it would be illegal, or even the gay community's concern that we will just get backlash. I now know that the simple answer to both of those is that if the Governor vetoes this bill, he is telling the people of California that discrimination is OK. We can't have the Governor emboldening the Opponents of Equality right before a petition initiative. Spending fifteen minutes a day trying to figure out how to get him on our side seems like a small investment to make for some big payback later.

Jim Smith is a gay California Republican Christian taxpayer who lives in Toluca Lake with his Domestic Partner and two six-month old children. He believes that it is wrong for his government, political party and faith to specially exclude same-sex couples from the security and safety of marriage that all other couples enjoy. "I was taught that Americans value freedom - the freedom to choose how they live and who they love."

Comments

Posted by: Ditat Deus at September 9, 2007 10:08 PM

Posted by: Jae at October 10, 2007 03:54 PM

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