SACRAMENTO — Gay partners in California will gain many of the same legal rights and obligations of married couples in handling children, money and property under a bill that cleared the Legislature on Wednesday and that Gov. Gray Davis has promised to sign.
After an hour of ardent debate, the Assembly passed the bill 41 to 32, a bare majority in the 80-member house. The result triggered applause, hugs and kisses among supporters.
"I'm overjoyed," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), after the vote. "It's been a marathon."
When signed into law as expected, AB 205 will give same-sex couples and couples over the age of 62 who register with the state as domestic partners a long list of additional rights and duties like those bestowed upon married couples.
They include the right to financial support after a domestic partnership is dissolved, child support or custody, the right to make funeral arrangements for a partner, and the responsibility to pay off debts incurred during the partnership.
The law would take effect in January 2005, Goldberg said, to give the 21,471 domestic partners registered with the secretary of state time to figure out whether they want to live up to the law's responsibilities. Goldberg predicted that many couples would dissolve their partnerships by filing a form with the state rather than abide by the new law. But she predicted that over time, the number of registered partners would grow.
The bill passed on largely partisan lines, with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. Two Democrats who had abstained from voting on the bill when it first passed the Assembly in June -- Lou Correa of Anaheim and Simon Salinas of Salinas -- voted yes Wednesday, making up for two absent Democrats who had previously supported the bill, Marco Firebaugh of Los Angeles and Jenny Oropeza of Long Beach.
Assemblyman John Campbell (R-Irvine) argued against the bill, saying that it slights other mutually dependent partnerships between best friends, brothers and sisters, or a grandmother and her grandson.
"I don't oppose this bill because I'm insecure in my marriage, nor do I oppose it because of any trace of bigotry," Campbell said. "I oppose this bill because marriage and family is the fundamental building block of our society. It is under assault and has been for decades."
