Dead Celebrity Alert

California state senator William J. “Pete” Knight, who sponsored the state’s same-sex marriage ban and took it directly to voters after twice failing to get it through the legislature, has died of leukemia. He was 74.

Knight died of an acute form of the cancer Friday night at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, his communications director, David Orosco, said Saturday. Knight, a Republican from Palmdale, had been absent from his seat since April 12 because of his illness. “The worst thing about this is, he wanted to keep working, going, contributing,” said Knight’s wife, Gail. “He wanted to live. He wanted to try. God had a different plan.” …

Knight was best known as author of the state’s Defense of Marriage Act, which says that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized as valid in California. After failing to get similar legislation through the Democrat-controlled legislature, Knight took it to voters; the measure passed with 61% approval in 2000. He later used the courts to keep state agencies from granting spousal rights to same-sex couples. His nonprofit group is at the center of the legal challenges to San Francisco’s same-sex wedding spree.

Knight’s son, David Knight, married Joseph Lazzaro, his partner of 10 years, at San Francisco’s City Hall earlier this year, just two days before the California supreme court halted the weddings. … Read full obituary

Filed under Government/Politics, LGBT, Religion