(September 6, 2005, updated Sept. 7 with recorded vote) -- Early Tuesday night (Sept. 6) the CA Assembly voted to join the CA Senate in passing legislation authorizing gender-neutral marriage in CA.

The Assembly vote was 41-35 (41 votes needed for passage) and follows a Sept. 1 vote in the CA Senate (21-15, 21 votes needed for passage).

The action sends the measure to Governor Arnold Schwaznegger...whose office promptly issued the following statement: "The people spoke when they passed Proposition 22 [opposing recognition of same-sex marriage]. The issue subsequently went to the courts. The Governor believes the courts are the correct venue for this decision to be made. He will uphold whatever decision the court renders."

Earlier this year, the Assembly rejected a same-sex marriage bill...but the legislation resurfaced when its author, Assemblyman Mark Leno (D., SF), used a procedure (commonly called "gut and amend") to take a bill on a different subject (one dealing with fish and game & marine research) that had already cleared legislative committees, removed its text and substituted the gender-neutral marriage text.

The measure was carried in the State Senate by Sen. Shiela Kuehl (D., Santa Monica). Among the bill's Assembly co-authors was Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza (D., LB-Carson).

VOTES - ROLL CALL
MEASURE:	AB 849
AUTHOR:	Leno
TOPIC:	Gender-neutral marriage.
DATE:	09/06/2005
LOCATION:	ASM. FLOOR
MOTION:	AB 849 Leno  Concurrence in Senate Amendments
(AYES  41. NOES  35.)  (PASS)


	AYES
	****

Bass	Berg	Bermudez	Calderon
Canciamilla	Chan	Chavez	Chu
Cohn	Coto	De La Torre	Dymally
Evans	Frommer	Goldberg	Hancock
Jones	Karnette	Klehs	Koretz
Laird	Leno	Levine	Lieber
Liu	Montanez	Mullin	Nation
Nava	Negrete McLeod	Oropeza	Pavley
Ridley-Thomas	Ruskin	Saldana	Salinas
Torrico	Umberg	Wolk	Yee
Nunez

	NOES
	****
Aghazarian	Arambula	Benoit	Blakeslee
Bogh	Cogdill	Daucher	DeVore
Emmerson	Harman	Haynes	Shirley Horton
Houston	Huff	Keene	La Malfa
La Suer	Leslie	Matthews	Maze
McCarthy	Mountjoy	Nakanishi	Niello
Parra	Plescia	Richman	Sharon Runner
Spitzer	Strickland	Tran	Vargas
Villines	Walters	Wyland


	ABSENT, ABSTAINING, OR NOT VOTING
	*********************************

Baca	Garcia	Jerome Horton	Vacancy

Related coverage: CA Senate Passes Gender-Neutral Marriage Bill; We Post LB-Area State Senator Alan Lowenthal's Floor Speech Verbatim