San Francisco ? Despite their state’s history of promoting gay rights, Californians have been split on the subject of same-sex marriage – a contrast that’s expected to become even more pronounced because of two overlapping voter initiatives.

A rift among conservatives has led competing groups to promote two different bans on gay marriage and snipe at each other over which is best. Both petitions would do away with rights associated with domestic partnerships as well as same-sex unions.

Voters agreed five years ago in a ballot initiative, Proposition 22, that marriage should be only between a man and a woman, but courts said the law violated gay couples’ civil rights.

Last week, the California Legislature became the nation’s first legislative body to approve a bill allowing same-sex marriages, although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would veto it.

In the ballot initiatives, a group called Vote Yes Marriage favors a detailed, multi-paragraph amendment rescinding the marriage-like rights lawmakers granted domestic partners over the last five years while defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The other group, Protect Marriage, does it in one sentence: “A marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”