The California State Senate voted today, along party lines, by a vote of 21-15 to allow gay marriages in the State of California.

Handing gay rights advocates a major victory, the California Senate approved legislation Thursday that would legalize same-sex marriages in the nation’s most populous state.

The 21-15 vote made the Senate the first legislative chamber in the country to approve a gay marriage bill. It sets the stage for a showdown in the state Assembly, which narrowly rejected a gay marriage bill in June.

“Equality is equality, period,” said one of the bill’s supporters, Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Sunol. “When I leave this Legislature, I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I stood up for dignity and rights for all.”

But Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-La Mesa, suggested that a “higher power” opposed the legislation.

“This is not the right thing to do,” he said. “We should protect traditional marriage and uphold all of those values and institutions that have made our society and keep our society together today.”

[…]

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said the office would not comment about how the governor would act if the bill is sent to his desk.

“The governor believes that the people spoke when they passed Proposition 22, and now it went to the courts and that’s where it should be,” she said. “The governor will abide by what the courts rule.”

She added that Schwarzenegger does support domestic partnerships.

Proposition 22 was approved by California voters in 2000. The initiative added a section to the state Family Code stating that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

The far-left California Senate, in order to curry favor with the gay voters in the State, have ignored the will of the people of California and, despite the passing of Proposition 22 overwhelmingly, have passed a bill that, if passed by the State Assembly and not vetoed by the Governor will surely wind up in the courts.

What the Legislators seem to forget or choose to ignore is that the majority of people in the State of California do not want California to acknowledge gay marriage. California has a Domestic Partnership Law that provides to gay partners all of the economic benefits of being married in this State.

The purpose of sex is reproduction. Society created the institution of marriage in order to protect the offspring of sexual activity with a man and a woman parent who would care for the child and provide both male and female parental guidance. Marriage is not a “right.” There is no “right” to marriage in the State Constitution or in the U. S. Constitution. Marriage is an acknowledgment of a union of a man and a woman by the State which creates a legal family unit. Since marriage is not a right, then “Gay Rights” are not being prejudiced by the banning of “gay marriage” by the State. Gay partners have all the benefits of married partners, but by banning “marriage” between two same-sex partners, the societal institution of marriage is maintained as a union between a man and a woman as it has been traditionally for thousands of years.