Mister SF.com: "In the News"

Attorney General Bill Lockyer

July 8, 2004: At a press conference at the LGBT Community Center on Market Street, California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer took a hardball from Mister SF, Hank Donat. Lockyer, a Democrat, is suing in the state supreme court to invalidate the gay marriages that took place in San Francisco this year. The attorney general appeared today with District Attorney Kamala Harris and community leaders to announce a decrease in hate crimes statewide in 2003.

Following the announcement, Donat asked the attorney general if his opposition to the marriages fosters intolerance in California. Lockyer said he thought most people understood that he personally supports these "loving couples" and believes gay marriage should and will be legal in the future. However, he said, as the attorney general he is obliged to defend all the laws of the state, not only those with which he agrees. (Prop. 22, passed by California voters in 2000, defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.) Pressed to state whether his legal opposition fosters intolerance, Lockyer said, "I sincerely hope not."

Mister SF also learned exclusively that the state will change hate crimes statistics-keeping to consolidate the "male homosexual" and "female homosexual" categories into one, "gay/lesbian."

08/12/04: California Supreme Court Rules Against Newsom, Wedstock Unions


Copyright 2004 Hank Donat
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