Prop. 22 would outlaw same-sex marriages SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Christie Hardwick Vianson has been married twice, to men, and has no plans to wed her female partner of the past six years. She doesn't want the state, in the form of Proposition 22, telling them and other same-sex couples they can never marry. ''It's the government coming into my personal relationship and making a decision about whether it's valid,'' said Vianson, a mother of three who works for a high-tech company. ''I think it gives legitimacy to people who want to hate.'' Proposition 22 is on the California ballot for March 7. It is only 14 words long: ''Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.'' As far as Rebecca Bennion is concerned, that's a good start. The housewife and mother of five disavows any anti-gay prejudice but longs for a return to an earlier era. ''It would be great if we could roll the years back - a man and a woman committed to each other, the wife staying home, nurturing the kids, like my mom stayed home,'' she said. ''We've tried everything else.'' The California proposition is not unique: similar ballot measures passed in Alaska and Hawaii in 1998, and signatures are being gathered in Colorado and Nevada. The potential political impact is magnified by California's role as the nation's most populous state and the presence of a large, visible gay population in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles. ''An eighth of the country is being asked to vote on an anti-gay initiative,'' said Mike Marshall, the No-on-22 campaign manager. ''If it passes, it sends a profound message to policy-makers and young gays and lesbians who are struggling with their sexual orientation.'' Hollywood weighed in early with an anti-22 television commercial last month by the cast of NBC's ''Will and Grace,'' which has a gay lead character. It said the proposition ''increases the rhetoric of hate and intolerance'' and would ''inject the government into the most personal decisions.'' No state has legalized gay marriage. Ever since Hawaii's Supreme Court raised the possibility of same-sex unions in 1993, Congress and 30 states, mostly in the South and Midwest, have passed pre-emptive laws saying they won't recognize such marriages if they are legalized in any other state. It is uncertain whether any of those laws can get around the requirement in the U.S. Constitution that states give ''full faith and credit'' to other states' laws. Hawaii has since adopted a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage. Vermont is the only state considering legalization, but lawmakers are generally expected to endorse domestic partner benefits instead. Prop. 22 is known as the Knight Initiative, after its sponsor, Republican state Sen. Pete Knight, whose gay son David has branded the measure a ''blind, uncaring, uninformed, knee-jerk reaction to a subject about which he knows nothing and wants to know nothing, but which serves his political career.'' Backers of the measure appear to have learned the lessons of past campaigns - a proposed ban on gay teachers in 1978, and Lyndon LaRouche-sponsored measures in 1986 and 1988 to quarantine AIDS patients. All were defeated after their sponsors were portrayed as bigoted extremists. An independent Field Poll last month showed Prop. 22 leading 51 percent to 40 percent. Opposition in San Francisco and Los Angeles has been offset by support in rural and suburban areas, said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo, who predicted a close election. ''It's pulling a significant amount of moderate Democrats,'' the key to winning most California elections, said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute for Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. It could still lose ''if it can be painted as extremist, if there's enough money and if the campaign is run well enough.'' So far, supporters have reported raising $5 million, about twice as much as opponents. More than $310,000 has come from the Roman Catholic Church, while the Mormon Church has written to 740,000 members urging support for 22. Originally on page 3A in the 1-19-2000 issue of the Daily.