It's been two weeks since we wrote that former California governor and current two-term Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown has not articulated a clear position on same-sex marriage in his current campaign for state attorney general. Brown's campaign spokesman, Ace Smith, bristled when we contacted him about the issue, but never did answer our question: Where does Brown stand on marriage equality?
Brown, a Democratic candidate in the statewide race, has pointed to the fact that as governor he signed legislation in 1975 that repealed criminal penalties for adultery, oral sex, and sodomy between consenting adults, a landmark in statewide gay rights. While we certainly applaud that historic action, we can't forget that it was Brown, just two years later, in 1977, who also signed the law that limited marriage to one man and one woman. Arguably, that law has been a huge stumbling block for the advancement of marriage rights for same-sex couples. An Assembly Judiciary Committee analysis last year of Assemblyman Mark Leno's gender neutral marriage bill noted that the 1977 amendment "is important because it indicates a clear intent by policymakers to exclude lesbians and gay men from the right to marry their chosen partners under California law."
Now Brown, who recently married his longtime girlfriend last June, wants the community to overlook his action of nearly 30 years ago.
The attorney general plays a pivotal role in legal issues concerning same-sex marriage. For one thing, the AG's office assigns titles and summaries to ballot measures, and when the right-wingers attempt to ban marriage in California (which will happen, though probably not this year), we need someone in the office who will describe these measures accurately and not feed into the antigay "marriage protection" crap.
Our current attorney general, Bill Lockyer, dropped the ball in 2004 when he served as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's lapdog and went to court in an effort to stop San Francisco from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Most egregiously, Lockyer asked the state Supreme Court to invalidate the roughly 4,000 marriages that took place during that "Winter of Love," and that's exactly what the high court did six months later. The attorney general serves as the lawyer for the state, not for antigay groups and not for the governor. That Lockyer's office argued before the high court that same-sex couples had no due process rights in the legal fight to keep the marriages valid only added insult to injury.
Our next attorney general must do better than that.
Only one of Brown's opponents, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, has come out in favor of marriage equality. But Brown has been silent about his current position, especially since it was under his signature that the state's marriage law was amended in 1977. As LGBT voters begin tuning in to the upcoming election, they should demand an answer from Brown. We're still waiting.