Villaraigosa helps open "No on Proposition 8" HQ

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who in July joined a legion of other politicians by presiding over the marriage of a same-sex couple, today will help officially open the Los Angeles headquarters of the No on Proposition 8 campaign at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center in Hollywood.

Villaraigosa already had come out in opposition to Prop. 8, a constitutional amendment on the statewide November ballot that would ban same-sex marriage.

That legal right has existed since May, when the California Supreme Court ruled that the state Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the same access to marriage that heterosexual couples have. That ruling overturned Proposition 22, passed by voters in 2000, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

-- Phil Willon