More than 100,000 California voters have signed a petition to let the people decide the definition of marriage, following a Focus on the Family mailing to 120,000 voters.
“To have this number of petitions come back signed, to be counted … is truly extraordinary," Ron Prentice, executive director of the California Family Council, told Family News in Focus.
But there's more work to do. In order to put marriage on the November ballot, more than 1 million signatures are needed by April 1.
Prentice is working with ProtectMarriage.com, a coalition of local, state and national groups, to join the 27 states that have constitutional protection for marriage. ProtectMarriage.com is putting forth a simple, one-sentence statement that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
Peter Brandt, senior director of government and public policy at Focus on the Family, said Californians are concerned about marriage — and rightly so.
Proposition 22, a legal statute protecting marriage as between one man and one woman, was passed by the people of California in 2000, with more than 61 percent of the vote. The constitutionality of Proposition 22 is pending before the California Supreme Court.
"People feel threatened that a radically liberal legislative body may do something, or the courts may do something," Brandt said. "They feel compelled to protect marriage."
He said the time to act is now.
"We encourage people to obtain the signatures of friends and neighbors and relatives and people at church," Brandt said. "This really needs to be a grassroots effort."
SIGN A PETITION
If you live in California, visit ProtectMarriage.com to get a copy of the petition. You can request extra copies for friends and family.
Paid for by ProtectMarriage.com committee P.O. Box 20012 Riverside, California 92516-0012 with major funding provided by Focus on the Family, 8605 Explorer Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
