Prop. 8 Supporters Split

One group that supported Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage is now trying to distance itself from its former allies, according to a published report.

Protect marriage.com says other groups that backed Prop. 8 are too extreme.  They claim one one of them is Campaign for California Families run by Randy Thomasson. He has butted heads with other Prop. 8 supporters for years.

Thomasson and his allies, in 2005 and again in January, proposed initiatives that bans same-sex marriage and that also "voids or makes unenforceable" rights conferred by California law on couples, gay or heterosexual, registered as domestic partners, including community property, child custody, hospital visitation and insurance benefits, reported SFGate.

Protect marriage.com says Thomasson's efforts to outlaw same-sex marriage and curb domestic partnership goes further than most California voters are willing to go. 

A Field Poll released in May showed that nearly a third of California voters opposed same-sex marriage, but still believed gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to have civil unions granting them the rights of married couples, according to the report.

Last week, California's highest court agreed this week to hear three legal challenges seeking to nullify the state's new ban on same-sex marriage. All three cases claim the ban abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.

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