California gay marriage campaign kicks off

By Peter Henderson

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Gay marriage advocates on Monday launched a campaign to try to overturn California's same-sex marriage ban, hoping to become the first U.S. state to convince voters to approve gay people's right to wed.

In the five states where gay marriage is permitted -- Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont -- the right was achieved through court and legislative action.

In every state where the issue has been put before the voters, gay marriage has been rejected. Last year California passed its ban, known as Proposition 8, and voters in Maine overturned a state law allowing same-sex marriages two weeks ago.

"All eyes are on California now," said John Henning, executive director of Love Honor Cherish, a California gay rights group, and one of the leaders of an effort to gather a million signatures to place the measure on the November 2010 ballot in California.

Signature-gathering began on Monday after the state approved proposed language for the ballot, and the group has until April to hit its goal of about a million.

Many Californians are weary of the same-sex marriage battle, which has come before the state Supreme Court twice in two years and has already been put to the voters once.

A Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll early this month found almost 60 percent did not want to revisit the issue in 2010, even though most surveyed favored gay marriage, by a margin of 51 percent to 43 percent.