California Assembly Judiciary Committee on HR 5

Full HR 5 Video (1 hour, 33 minutes):

Direct Link to the California Assembly Judiciary Committee’s HR 5 Video

On Tuesday, February 17th, 2009, the California Assembly Judiciary Committee convened a hearing to discuss HR 5, an Assembly resolution to oppose Proposition 8, introduced by Assembly Member Ammiano. The Committee heard arguments from both proponents and opponents of Prop 8.

Co-author of HR 5 Assembly Member Ted Lieu stood up and made this speech:

“Ten years ago I did not support marriage equality. I am a proud co-author of HR5, and proud to support Sen. Leno’s marriage equality bills. To me the issue is very simple, it’s about love. You never see the words love in the constitution. And that’s precisely the point. Government ought not to be regulating the most sacred private parts of loving individuals. I love my wife, but there is no reason that love takes any precedence over Assembly Member Ammiano’s love, or Sen. Perez’s love of his life. There is nothing unique about my love that qualifies my wife and I to get a piece of paper that says marriage, that Tom Ammiano can’t get for the love of his life.”

“No matter where you believe love flows form Jesus Christ, as I do, or from Allah or from the human condition, you believe that love is the most sacred part of life. … For government to choose winners and losers as to which love qualifies for what, is the ultimate offensive notion of what we are all about. The issue isn’t about your beliefs, it is about whether you think the government should be regulating in this most sacred area.”

“My view is that government should not pick winners and losers. We need to treat everybody equally. Government should stay the hell out of regulating this most sacred institution.”

Source:
http://www.calitics.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=81E26AEACEFB325FF0C3ABC0 9E5CB6C3?diaryId=8096