Referenda: a family hobby

In an LA Times story on how the California marriage ban initiative found its legs, a human story passed unnoted:

One camp, led by conservative activist Randy Thomasson, pushed ballot measures that also would have stripped away gay couples' rights to civil unions.

The other, more moderate group, which included both Pugno and Gail Knight, widow of original Proposition 22 backer state Sen. Pete Knight, considered that too radical for California voters.

In the Senator's 2004 obituary The New York Times noted,

Mr. Knight, called Pete, was best known as the author of the state's Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. After failing to get similar legislation through the Democratic-controlled Legislature, he took his proposal to a referendum, where in 2000 it passed with the approval of 61 percent of the voters.

He had since used the courts to keep state agencies from granting spousal rights to same-sex couples, and a nonprofit group he founded is at the center of the legal challenges to San Francisco's allowing same-sex weddings.

The Knights' son, David, 46, a former Air Force fighter pilot, now a cabinetmaker in Vermont, is gay.