SACRAMENTO — The California Senate voted Thursday to allow homosexuals to marry, becoming the first legislative body in the United States to embrace the idea and setting off a scramble for three votes needed for passage in the Assembly.
Almost completely along party lines, the Democrat-controlled Senate approved the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would allow marriage between two people rather than only between a man and a woman.
The measure passed by the minimum number of necessary votes, 21-15, after a sometimes personal debate in which both sides acknowledged the momentous nature of the vote.
Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), one of six openly gay legislators in Sacramento, said that allowing homosexuals to marry "unchains a community that has participated in this state since its inception."
With only a week left before lawmakers adjourn for the year, the measure faces a tough fight in the Assembly, which defeated it in June. Signaling a likely veto if it does pass, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spokeswoman said he preferred to let judges sort out the legality of gay marriage; such a case is moving toward the state Supreme Court.
Nonetheless, advocates said the vote was a milestone in the effort to make California the first state whose elected representatives decide to allow gays to marry. Massachusetts is the only state that allows such marriages, but that was decreed by the state's courts. Vermont and Connecticut permit civil unions.
Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the proposal's chief sponsor, said, "We're looking for three votes, and I can't tell you today who the three will be, but I think the power of the success coming from the floor of the Senate today will give us the necessary momentum and encouragement to do what we all know is the right thing to do."
He is targeting four Democrats to try to get the remaining three: Jerome Horton of Inglewood, Simon Salinas of Salinas, Gloria Negrete McLeod of Chino and Tom Umberg of Anaheim. All said Thursday they were not sure how they would vote.
"I'm being lobbied hard, and I still have an open mind," Umberg said.
Opponents decried the vote as a repudiation of the will of the electorate, which five years ago passed Proposition 22, declaring that California would recognize only marriages between men and women. They said that legislators cannot undo a law passed by 61% of the public without putting it before the electorate again.
