Governator Tries To Have It Both Ways

The Governator has finally vetoed or signed all of the 1,172 bills passed by the California legislature in its latest session. Mad Professah is particularly interested in the LGBT- and HIV-related legislation which went through the Governor's desk this session. Over the weekend the Los Angeles Times had a very useful list of the Governator's actions on prominent bills. Also, Equality California has a summary of the fourteen bills the organization has sponsored in the 2005-2006 legislative session (10 have been enacted, 4 were vetoed by the Governor).

2006
AB 606 - Safe Place to Learn Act (vetoed by Schwarzenegger)
SB 1437 - Bias-Free Curriculum Act (vetoed by Schwarzenegger 9/6/2006)
SB 1827 - State Income Tax Equity Act of 2006
AB 2800 - Civil Rights Housing Act of 2006
AB 2920 - Older Californians Equality and Protection Act
SB 1441 - Nondiscrimination in State Programs and Activities
AB 2051 - Equality in Prevention and Services for Domestic Abuse Act
AB 1160 - Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act
AB 1207 - Code of Fair Campaign Practices
2005
AB 849 - Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (vetoed by Schwarzenegger on 9/6/2005)
AB 866 - Code of Fair Campaign Practices (vetoed by Schwarzenegger
AB 1160 - Elimination of "Panic" Strategy in Criminal Trials (2 year bill)
AB 1400 - Civil Rights Act of 2005
SB 973 - Domestic Partner Pension Death Benefit Legislation
AB 1586 - Insurance Non-Discrimination Act You might notice there are actually fifteen bills listed. This is because Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed Fair Campaign Practices Act in 2005 "by mistake" and signed it into law in 2006.

It is actually a pretty impressive list of accomplishment for Equality California and the LGBT community. However there are at least two reasons Mad Professah can think of why it would be detrimental to the rights of the LGBT community if Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't lose the California gubernatorial election to Phil Angelides on November 7. First, one of the bills that Schwarzenegger vetoed was the historic AB 849, the first time a state legislature had passed a bill authorizing same sex marriage in the United States. This would have ended marriage discrimination in the largest state in the United States and had a dramatic impact on the rights of LGBT citizens not just in California but the rest of the country and possibly the world, IF a Democratic Governor had been in place and signed the bill into law.

Secondly, Schwarzenegger's actions on other issues that either disproportionately impact LGBT people or significant populations that the LGBT community is allied with. For example, on HIV/AIDS policy the Governor inexplicably vetoed AB 1677 (Koretz) which would have allowed non-profit organizations to distribute condoms and HIV awareness/education materials in California correctional facilities. This has a direct impact on the HIV rate among prisoners, who happen to be predominantly African American and Latino. And clearly any impact on the general HIV infection rate is of interest to the wider LGBT community. In addition to the AB 1677 veto, there are numerous other problematic actions taken by the Governor in his 261 other gubernatorial "smackdowns." He vetoed bills to allow school children to hear about the contributions of LGBT individuals (SB 1437), to allow California to enter a pact to override the Electoral College (AB 2948), to raise the minimum wage and index the increase to the inflation rate (AB 2536) and to increase penalties on employers who paid employees differently based on their sex or gender (AB 2555).

Plus, hello! He is a Republican. He campaigned for George W Bush in Ohio, which decided the final result of the 2004 election. That alone should make any self-respecting Democrat forget any bizarre impulse they might have to vote for the steroid-enhanced, former action movie star candidate for Governor.

The only way for him to get elected to a full four-year term (ending in January 2011!) is for him to attempt to have it both ways: he has to convince Republican voters that he shares their fiscally conservative values while not scaring Democratic voters that he doesn't share their concern for disenfranchised groups.

Don't believe the hype!