DEMOCRATS TRY TO BLOCK STATE BILL BANNING MARRIAGE OF GAY COUPLES.

Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau

For the second straight year, Democrats moved to inject poison pill amendments into state Sen. Pete Knight's bill to keep California from recognizing same-sex marriages.

Knight, R-Palmdale, said that he expected opponents of his bill, Senate Bill 911, to succeed in adding provisions that would extend insurance and other benefits to gay couples.

The move leaves the bill with little chance of passage, while sparing opponents the politically risky task of voting directly against it.

``In essence it kills the bill,'' Knight said. ``The people who are going to support the bill are not going to support those amendments.''

Knight, whose bill on the subject also died in the Senate last year, has pushed to pre-empt gay couples from marrying in other states and then having their unions recognized in California. The state currently recognizes marriages performed legally elsewhere.

But with courts in Hawaii moving toward allowing gay marriages, Knight said the ban is needed to prevent homosexuals from ``redefining marriage.''

``They're taking one man, one woman, out of marriage,'' he said.

Knight said recognizing gay marriages would place a burden on businesses by forcing them to extend insurance benefits to gay couples, and lead to teaching about same-sex marriages in schools.

Gay activists voiced strong opposition to the bill Tuesday at a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee. They argued that a ban on gay marriages was simply a form of discrimination against homosexuals.

``There is no one that supports the American family more than me and other lesbians and gay men,'' said Kathryn Kendell, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. ``We want to be part of what makes this country strong.''

Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, said that aside from procreation, there's nothing heterosexual couples can do that homosexuals can't.

``People of the same sex can care for each other, they can love each other, they can share pain, they can do a lot of things,'' he said.

Over Knight's objection, Burton, the committee's chairman, moved to add the domestic partner amendments to the bill. Many conservatives, including Gov. Pete Wilson, have opposed requiring benefits for domestic partners.

Sens. Burton, Charles Calderon, D-Montebello; and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, voted in favor of the amendments - one vote shy of the number needed.

Sen. President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward, who was not present during the voice vote, was expected to vote in favor of the amendments later, a spokesman said.