"The image that came to mind is that they are going to institutionalize discrimination against a group of Americans," the 54-year-old Bitonti said. "This is turning back the clock, not moving forward, as far as I'm concerned."
Bitonti got married Feb. 16 in San Francisco, a few days after Mayor Gavin New-som declared marriage a right -- guaranteed by the state constitution -- to all people, regardless of gender.
Since then, thousands of gay and lesbian couples from all over the country have gotten married at San Francisco City Hall. Bush announced Tuesday that he supports an amendment to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.
Voicing approval for the president's position, Velton Johnson Jr., pastor of Greater True Light Baptist Church in Modesto, said he believes gay marriage adds to other issues leading to the deterioration of family values.
"God needs to change their heart," Johnson said of gay couples. "(But) I don't think a law is going to do that. The best thing you can do for people is to pray for them and love them."
Glen Berteau, pastor of Calvary Temple Worship Center in Modesto, said he supports the amendment and Bush "100 percent" but is concerned about the role that politics plays.
"In the church, we believe in the traditional values that have always been, and so … we believe in the sanctity of marriage with a male and female," he said. "That will always be; it will not change with anybody's view or anybody's vote or an amendment or no amendment."
The beliefs he teaches are Scripture-based, Berteau said, not intended to "tear down."
"We have in society discovered if we want something bad enough and get enough people that have the same want, we can go ahead and set a precedent," he said, referring to the same-sex marriages. "(But) that's a civilization that is out of control. … In the church we would say God has laid out what things we should have and not have. … That is why the Bible and Scripture and God's word is the best teacher to know what to do in life."
Joe and Michelle Williams, directors of the Valley Community Marriage and Family Resource Center, a faith-based coalition in Modesto, applauded Bush's proposal.
"A few people are trying to get the rest of us to agree that what they want to do is right, and I will never agree to that," Michelle Williams said.
Michelle Williams said she feels the San Francisco weddings send "the wrong message about marriage." If people insist on legal same-sex partnerships, she wants them to be called something other than marriage, she said.
"(Gay couples) talk about having equal rights with married people, but they do have rights, they have exactly the same rights we do," Joe Williams added. "They can get married (to opposite-sex partners). What they want is special rights, they want new rights."
For gays and lesbians, being able to marry the person they love -- male or female -- is worth pressing for, they said.
"We want to have the same rights as everyone else," said Jeff Gianelli, 27, of Modesto, who has been with his partner, Keith Highiet, 25, for a year. "There are loving couples that want to make a commitment to each other and want to make a family and have the same values as everyone else in America."
Gianelli said he believes attitudes toward gays have become more accepting over the past 10 years. But he feels it is important for people who support gay rights to speak up more.
"President Bush has said that the majority feels gay marriages are wrong and I think there's a lot of people that feel that's not the case," Gianelli said.
"If people want rights," he added, "they have to fight for them."
Bitonti said she knows the long-term legality and recognition of her marriage are up to the courts, but she felt good about achieving something thus far open only to heterosexual couples.
"Considering that we've spent a lifetime with only very close family and friends even recognizing our relationship, to have it be so publicly validated and celebrated was truly the experience of a lifetime," Bitonti said.
She said she feels a solution is to have civil unions for all couples, with the same rights and responsibilities, and the choice to celebrate the union with weddings or religious ceremonies.
Michael Brennan, 51, a fifth-generation Oakdale resident, said he does not have a problem with gay marriage.
"I'm a religious person; I go to church on Sundays, but I go for myself," he said. "I don't go to point fingers at someone (else)."
He disagreed with efforts to ban same-sex marriage.
"I disagree simply because I'm tired of people sticking their nose in other people's business all the time," he said. "We all have problems of our own. Why don't they get on our elected officials about our budget crisis, deplorable buildings in our public schools, gang violence, unemployment? All these things are things that affect us in our daily life."
College Avenue Congregational Church in Modesto is one of the few area churches that performs holy unions of same-sex partners.
"Our denomination was one of the first to come out against slavery," church moderator Ray Stimson said. "If you'd had a vote of people in the states of the Confederacy to abolish slavery, I suspect it never would have been abolished. Just because the majority thinks something is right or wrong does not mean it is given equal protection under the law."
At the same time, he said, he recognizes the difference between civil marriage and religious marriage.
"No church should ever be forced to bless a relationship that they believe is inappropriate," he said.
He felt it was brave of the San Francisco mayor and the couples who have lined up to get married.
"If nothing else, perhaps people who don't have a strong opinion one way or another will see that gay and lesbian couples have a tremendous desire to have their relationships respected and treated as something of worth," Stimson said.