AB 19 was not passed in a close June 2nd vote by the California Assembly. Geoffrey Kors of Equality California said that a handful of Democrats and all Republican members "voted for discrimination." Read more

AB 19 is the Equality California-sponsored "Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act," legislation that would protect religious freedom while ensuring equal treatment under the law for same-sex couples by allowing them to marry in California. This bill would remove discriminatory barriers to equal protection under the law by returning the relevant California Family Code statutes to gender-neutral terms, as they were from 1850-1977. In 1948, the California Supreme Court became the first state court in the country to strike down a law prohibiting interracial marriage before the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated all such laws in 1967. The California Supreme Court held that "marriage is . . . something more than a civil contract subject to regulation by the state; it is a fundamental right of free men...legislation infringing such rights must be based upon more than prejudice and must be free from oppressive discrimination to comply with the constitutional requirements of due process and equal protection of the laws." As the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found, "The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal."

The right-wing's sole attention is focused on AB 19. Right-wingers have been targeting certain LGBT-supportive legislators in an attempt to intimidate and coerce them to stop supporting AB 19, by giving their members "permission to be angry." Marriage Equality advocates say that people need to work together and continue to move forward with the gains that have been made, by contacting the legislators to keep the bullying tactics from working. Read EQCA's list of pro-equality assembly members.

Religious Tolerance AB 19 Page | Equality California