Politics

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― Five months and thousands of weddings after California's highest court sanctioned same-sex marriage, anxious eyes around the nation will closely follow voters next week as they decide whether to turn back the clock.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, in an exlcusive interview with CBS 5 on Friday afternoon, spoke out against Proposition 8 which she said "would take us backward" and labeled backers of the measure "mean-spirited."

Given California's size and influence, the vote on a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage has become a referendum on sexual orientation and civil rights. Both sides call it the "Gettysburg" of the power struggle between the gay rights movement and the Christian right, with the victors capturing momentum in other states.

"It's a measure that would dimish freedom," Pelosi said of Proposition 8. "It's mean-spirited in my view... it is discriminatory, unfair and it must be defeated."

The race has tightened over the last six weeks and is expected to be close. A Field Poll released Friday found 49 percent of likely voters oppose the ban and 44 percent favor it. In mid-September, the measure was losing by 17 points.

Religious and civil rights groups, wealthy philanthropists and middle-class donors have poured $69 million into campaigns for and against Proposition 8, making the initiative the most expensive election question this year outside the race for the White House. Almost $21 million has come from campaign contributors outside California.

Even the presidential candidates weighed in on Proposition 8: Sen. John McCain endorsed it and Sen. Barack Obama opposed it.

The majority of opinion leaders, including almost every major newspaper, the League of Women Voters, the state NAACP, and moderate politicians such as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein have joined Pelosi in opposing the measure, which critics say unfairly denies one group a basic right.

"This isn't about gay marriage," said Pelosi, a same-sex marriage supporter who has donated $10,000 from her campaign fund to defeat Proposition 8. "It's about discrimination, it's about fairness and it's about the constitution."

Corporations that normally shy away from contentious issues also have come out against it. The founders of Google, Yahoo and Adobe Systems took out a newspaper ad Friday encouraging Silicon Valley residents to reject it.

But the measure's opponents have found a formidable foe in the coalition of religious and social conservatives who sponsored the initiative. Since leaders of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appealed to members to back the ban, Mormon dollars and volunteers have streamed into California.

The church's liaison with a coalition called Protect Marriage, said the religious right and Mormons see a threat to the fundamental underpinnings of their faiths.

California Roman Catholics, at the urging of bishops, also have stepped up with money and manpower, as have evangelical Christians.

The initiative's backers contend that people of faith will be forced to embrace same-sex marriage if the ban loses, and teachers will be required to inform children about gay relationships, an assertion denounced by state education officials. They also argue that opponents of same-sex marriage are unjustifiably being painted as bigots.

The measure, which would change the California Constitution to limit marriage to a woman and a man, marks the first time voters have been asked to ban same-sex unions retroactively. If passed, it would overrule the state Supreme Court decision in May that said preventing gays from marrying was unlawful discrimination.

Many couples have hurried to tie the knot before Election Day despite uncertainty over whether their unions would remain valid if voters approve the measure. State Attorney General Jerry Brown has already opined that the ban would not be retroactive, but legal scholars have expressed uncertainty and said the matter would almost certainly be litigated.

Beyond what that might mean for already married couples, the measure's adoption or rejection could affect the pace at which other state courts and legislatures move to legalize same-sex marriage. Depending on how the vote goes, it could also reinvigorate efforts to get Congress to consider a law extending nondiscrimination workplace protections to gays and lesbians or a federal constitutional gay marriage ban.
 
"As usual, California is in the lead," said Pelosi. "I don't see this as an issue of concern to most people unless you put it on the ballot. To put it on the ballot is a political tactic with a political purpose."

Gay couples are expected to begin marrying this month in Connecticut, the third state after Massachusetts and California to allow same-sex weddings. The Iowa Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a similar case next month. Meanwhile, gay rights activists have been lobbying lawmakers in New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire to take up marriage legislation.

A setback for same-sex marriage in California would deprive the gay rights movement of the opportunity to show mainstream America what happens when gay couples can marry, according to some advocates.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)