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COPYRIGHT 2007 San Jose Mercury News
Byline: Kate Folmar
Mar. 8--SACRAMENTO -- Perhaps more than any Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger openly professes his support of gay rights. He has signed more than a dozen laws strengthening domestic partnerships and hate-crime protections.
Some of his close friends and advisers are lesbians and gay men. And the live-and-let-live governor evinces no moral qualms about same-sex marriages. He's "not personally hung up on the whole thing."
So will Schwarzenegger sign a gay-marriage bill? No.
Not now. Perhaps never.
On so many subjects, including health care and stem-cell research, Schwarzenegger is willing to risk political capital to propel a national debate.
But on a subject that stirs passions among activists on both sides, he's uncharacteristically passive: The voters of California can navigate, he says. Or the courts can steer. That hands-off stance isn't what some Californians have come to expect from their take-charge governor.
Some observers think his actions are aimed at safeguarding his conservative base.
But the governor's confidants say the stance isn't calculated to duck political shrapnel. In fact, even the governor's close gay advisers disagree on the marriage debate. His allies believe his stance makes perfect sense for a man who cares more for the tangible -- say,...
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