Where is the Girlie Man on marriage?

A comment on the California page of this blog inspired today’s post: Is California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pro-marriage or not? 

Two days after Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Proposition 8, a voter-approved initiative that banned marriages of lesbian and gay couples in California, was unconstitutional, Schwarzenegger joined California Attorney General Jerry Brown in urging Walker to allow the marriages of same-sex couples to immediately resume. 

Immediately after the ruling, Schwarzenegger issued a statement saying it “affirms the full legal protections and safeguards I believe everyone deserves.”

If these statements had been uttered by Hawaii Gov. Laura Lingle, we’d certainly tag her pro-marriage. But does Schwarzenegger deserve the credit ensuing support from the LGBT community for supporting marriage equality? That’s a harder question to answer. 

Schwarzenegger has done something no other governor in the country has done. He vetoed —not once, but twice! — bills from state lawmakers permitting same-sex couples to access their right to marry. 

In 2005, just one year after lesbian and gay couples started marrying in Massachusetts, California lawmakers became the first in the country to proactively pass a bill — without pressure from a court — permitting same-sex couples to access their right to wed. At the time, Schwarzenegger had the lowest approval ratings of his governorship and he was backing several ballot initiatives in a tough November election. He was in no position to do anything to alienate the GOP voter base. So, to the surprise of nearly no one, he vetoed the bill. 

A statement issued by his press secretary said, in part: “In Governor Schwarzenegger's personal life and work in public service, he has considered no undertaking to be more noble than the cause of civil rights. He believes that gay couples are entitled to full protection under the law and should not be discriminated against based upon their relationship. He is proud that California provides the most rigorous protections in the nation for domestic partners.” 

Schwarzenegger seemed to have moved a lot about his feelings about marriage equality in just one year’s time. Just one year prior to the veto, on a 2004 appearance NBC’s Meet the Press, he warned that the marriages of same-sex couples would result in people rioting on the streets: "All of a sudden, we see riots, we see protests, we see people clashing. The next thing we know, there is injured or there is dead people. We don't want to get to that extent."  

And that statement seems to be an improvement over a 2003 crack that’s been widely attributed to him, but for which no original sourcing can be found: “I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

 Two years after the first veto, Assembly members passed a second bill giving same-sex couples access to their right to wed. He once again vetoed it by returning the bill to lawmakers unsigned. In explaining his decision, he said that he fully supported domestic partnership rights for same-sex couples and that he did not believe anyone should be discriminated against based on their sexual orientation, but that he believed that the issue of marriage rights should be decided by judges and not politicians. 

So does Schwarzenegger support marriage equality or not? He’s done enough to move him into the support column. So that’s what we’ve done here at StatesThatAllowGayMarriage.com. But quite honestly, we can’t help wondering what he’d do if the decision were left solely up to him.