Another Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment in California

I thought we took care of this with Prop 22 in 2000, but I guess not:

The sponsors of a proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage in California said Monday they have gathered enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

A coalition of religious groups called Protect Marriage collected more than 1.1 million signatures in support of the amendment, said Brian Brown, executive director of the California office of the National Organization for Marriage.

The initiative needs 694,354 signatures, or 8 percent of the votes cast in the last governor's race, to make it onto the ballot.

"We have gone against tremendous odds to do this, and now the voters in California will have the chance to protect marriage," Brown said.

Supporters of the Limit on Marriage initiative plan to deliver their signed petitions to county registrars this week, ahead of the April 28 submission deadline set by the California Secretary of State's Office. The signatures must be verified before the amendment can be approved for the election.

Although gay men and lesbians cannot legally wed in California, opponents of same-sex unions want the ban written into the state Constitution. In that way, neither the Legislature nor the California Supreme Court can legalize gay marriage without approval from voters.

They were especially anxious to put the question before voters this fall because the state Supreme Court is scheduled to rule by early June on a series of lawsuits seeking to toss out California's existing one man-one woman marriage laws.

If passed by a majority of voters, the constitutional amendment would overturn a court ruling in favor of gay marriage advocates. They hope California will become the second state after Massachusetts to legalize same-sex marriage.

The voters overwhelming approved Proposition 22 in 2000 with 61% of the vote, but there are those in the legislature that haven't given up the Great Gay Hope and keep looking for ways to circumvent the will of the voters. I'm not sure the votes are going to be there this time to pass another anti-gay marriage measure. The state has slipped ever further to the left.

UPDATE: California Supremes throw out Prop 22 and legalize gay marriage. It looks like this new amendment will be necessary after all, but probably meaningless since some queer judge is likely to throw it out if it passes.