Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, is the second House Republican to announce support for legislation that would legalize same sex marriage in the state. Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, is a co-sponsor of the bill.
The measure already had 50 signatures — enough votes for passage in the House — without Anderson, but he gets the award for what is likely the longest explanation to date for supporting gay marriage.
There’s a duplicate measure in the Senate where the legislation’s fate is more uncertain.
First, Gov. Chris Gregoire came out in favor of legalizing gay marriage. Now a state lawmaker from Mercer Island, Steve Litzow, has become the first Republican in the Senate to take a bold stance. Check out the Seattle Times editorial commending his decision.
No doubt, the Legislature convening Monday will be consumed with budget woes and other weighty issues. But do not listen to those who say there is no time to do right by gay and lesbian couples. If other lawmakers come to the same reasonable conclusion as Litzow, Washington will become the seventh state in the country to act on an important civil rights issue.
Minnesota State Rep. John Kriesel is on board with the effort to defeat a gay marriage ban at the 2012 ballot box.
Kriesel on Thursday confirmed to Politics in Minnesota that he is serving on the steering committee of Minnesotans United for All Families, the coalition working to defeat a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a heterosexual union.
“I plan on being actively involved as much as I possibly can,” Kriesel told the publication.
On Friday I reported that the Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee had voted 8-4 along party lines to advance a bill that would place a voter initiative to ban same-sex marriage in the state on next year’s ballot.
Jeremy Hooper at Good As You makes note of at least one ray of light during that day, Madeline Koch, a young straight Republican who portends the future.
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A Utah legislator introduced a bill Wednesday that would require all publicly funded programs, laws, and regulations, to ensure they exclude families headed by gay and lesbian couples.
Rep. LaVar Christensen writes in the bill’s language that “marriage and family predate all governments and are supported by and consistent with the Laws of Nature and God, the Creator and Supreme Judge of the World, affirmed in the nation’s founding Declaration of Independence.”
It also says, “families anchored by both a father and a mother, fidelity within marriage, and enduring devotion to the covenants and responsibilities of marriage are the desired norm.”
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Yesterday Tea Party-backed GOP state Rep. Nora Espinoza introduced a state-level version of DOMA. Equality New Mexico reports on their Facebook page:
This very concept of creating less equal classes of people has been fought against for generations in New Mexico and is contrary to our state’s proud traditions of providing equal protection and opportunity for her citizens from every background and community.
Similar legislation was defeated last year when it was tabled in the Senate Rule Committee. This year, however, promises greater challenges given the much more conservative make up of both our state legislature and governor’s office.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Sen. Jim DeMint has never been one to hide his disgust for gays and lesbians. He wants to deny them marriage licenses and ban them from teaching. But that isn’t enough. Last December, DeMint told Bloomberg News that he “cringes” at the thought of a gay president. “It would be bothersome to me just personally, because I consider it immoral,” DeMint said at the time.
Senator, prepare to be bothered. Gay Republican Fred Karger announced earlier this year that he’s exploring a presidential run in the GOP primary, and it was clear last week in an interview that Karger is moving ever closer to officially announcing a campaign.
Karger is a longtime Republican operative who worked with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He came out publicly four years ago and led a challenge to California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure that outlawed gay marriage by a narrow margin in California in 2008. Karger has also brought the fight to anti-gay groups like the Mormon Church and the National Organization for Marriage.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Two days after Election Day 2010, for the last hour of the show, I asked those LGBT people who voted Republican to call in to the show and explain why. The phones lit up with people calling from all across the U.S.
Exit polling shows gay, lesbian, bisexual voters cast a ballot for Republicans in double the numbers from 2008: from 19% to 31%. True, the sample is small, and any such polling should be taken with a grain of salt. But it’s undeniable that many LGBT voters were disappointed with the White House and Democrats, and it’s plausable that many stayed home or voted for another party.
And yet, the Republican takeover of the House and many statehouses means there will be no votes expanding gay civil rights protections, in Congress and in most of the states that went GOP (and there likely will be antigay votes, such as in Minnesota where Republican pledge to push a marriage amendment), which begs the question of why gay people would vote Republican in this election. The phones were jammed with people who voted GOP who wanted to offer their explanations for casting votes for politicians like David Vitter in Louisiana, for Rand Paul in Kentucky, for Rick Scott in the governor’s race in Florida, and for various other, Senate, House and local races.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Among the more dismal losses in Tuesday’s results was the one in New Hampshire, where Republicans won a veto-proof majority in both the state House and Senate. That means that, while Democratic Governor John Lynch retained his seat – and the position to veto any of the legislature’s pending bills to repeal the state’s marriage equality law – there are enough votes now in both chambers to overturn that veto.
It gets worse. Republicans took over the majorities in both chambers of the state legislatures in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Alabama – states which had both houses dominated by Democrats going into Tuesday’s votes.
In Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where only one chamber had a Republican majority, now both are dominated by Republicans. The Maine Senate, too, has switched from a Democratic to Republican majority, with Republicans holding a hefty 21 to 13 margin that would not likely approve a new marriage equality law. The Democratic-led Maine Senate passed such a bill in 2009 by a 20 to 15 margin but the law was overturned by voter referendum later that year.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is returning for a fifth term after a 12-year break. Voters elected the Republican on Tuesday over first-term Democrat Chet Culver, whose loss made him the first incumbent Iowa governor to lose election since 1962.
Branstad campaigned on promises to rein in government spending and cut business taxes. He called for making Iowa more friendly to entrepreneurs and told voters he’d create 200,000 jobs within five years.
Those pledges played well in a state with unemployment of nearly 7 percent, the highest Iowa has seen in decades.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, is the second House Republican to announce support for legislation that would legalize same sex marriage in the state. Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, is a co-sponsor of the bill.
