California Senate President Darrell
Steinberg is open to putting an initiative on the ballot asking
voters to repeal Proposition 8, the state's gay marriage ban.
“Depending upon what the Supreme
Court might or might not do with Proposition 8,” Steinberg told The
Sacramento Bee, “in coalition with stakeholders and
the gay and lesbian leadership, if it were appropriate and necessary
to put repeal of Prop. 8 on the ballot with our two-thirds
supermajority, I would be open to that.”
A federal court's ruling declaring the
2008 voter-approved measure unconstitutional has been appealed to the
Supreme Court. The
high court is expected to decide later this month whether it will
hear the case. If the court refuses the case, then the weddings
of gay and lesbian couples could resume in California.
Voters approved the amendment by a
margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.
Citing the possibility of a favorable
outcome in the federal case, gay rights groups have twice decided to
pass on returning the issue to the ballot.