same-sex marriage bill passed in senate

Also unprecedented, California's bicameral legislature has passed the same-sex marriage bill, agreeing to grant equal rights to all Californians, WITHOUT the intervention of the courts.

If I said that the Assembly looked stormy, I was apparently wrong. There was no protracted or excessive debate, at least not like Massachusetts' attempt to pass an amendment to ban gay marriage.

The stormiest proposition may be Schwarzenegger's own heart, and his interest in the public approval rating. A veto would complicate his Republican philosophy of smaller government with less tax, but signing it into law would affirm his conservative belief that government should not interfere in private and consensual affair.

The lack of protest in California makes me wonder whether, or even hope, that opinions have changed since the last time the voters decreed that marriage should be considered a one-woman-one-man matrimony.