A REAL "Equality of Marriage Act"

Section 1.

Article 1, Section 7.5 of the Constitution of the State of California is repealed.

Section 2.

Article 1, Section 32 is added to the Constitution of the State of California, to read:

Section 32.
(a) Marriage shall in this State consist of a private contract.
(b) The State shall not infringe upon, legislate, regulate, license, prohibit, or restrict any private contract of Marriage in this State, including on the basis of race, religion, creed, gender, color, national origin, age, or sexual orientation, except for the following:
(1) All such contracts shall only be voluntary and between two unrelated and competent consenting adults or emancipated minors;
(2) No competent consenting adult or emancipated minor may enter into any such contract more than once at any given time;
(3) To preserve the free exercise of religion, no church, no religious institution, or no religious organization shall be required to recognize, solemnize, enact, bear witness to, commemorate, celebrate, or enforce any private contract of Marriage in this State;
(4) All marriages previously licensed by this State or other States shall be considered valid and enforceable private contracts of Marriage in this State;
(5) All laws, rights and privileges associated with marriages previously licensed by this State shall be considered valid and enforceable as part of all private contracts of Marriages in this State;
(6) All such contracts shall be considered as licenses for the purposes of recognition by other States.
(c) No contract of Marriage shall override or supersede any prenuptial agreement unless specifically stated in the contract of Marriage.
(d) This Section enumerates a fundamental right of the People of California.
(e) All other constitutional or statutory provisions found to be in conflict with this Section shall be null and void only in relation to the provisions of this Section.

Section 3.

All references in the California Codes that refer to “husband” or “wife” or their respective genders (“his,” “he”, “him,” “hers,” “she,” “her,” etc.) shall be legally construed to be gender-neutral.

Section 4.

Should any other initiative be on the ballot concurrent with this initiative, this initiative shall supersede and the others shall be null and void.

Section 5.

This Section shall be effective immediately upon ratification by the People of California.