Wisconsin gay marriage activists warn Bay State lawmakers on vote
BOSTON (AP) – Lawmakers and gay rights activists from Wisconsin – where voters approved a ban same-sex marriage last year – are urging their Massachusetts counterparts to avoid a statewide vote, with one saying it lets “mob rule” dictate on a question of discrimination.
The admonition comes on a video being unveiled this weekend at house parties across the state, and being sent to Massachusetts lawmakers considering a proposed constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage.
Created by MassEquality, the DVD is the latest lobbying effort by gay rights groups who are trying to preserve their right to marriage, made possible by the historic 2003 court ruling allowing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.
“It’s a crapshoot sometimes when you take it to the voter,” Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, says on the 11-minute video. “Do you really want mob rule deciding who’s going to be discriminated against and who’s not going to be discriminated against?”
In Wisconsin, a ban on gay marriage and civil unions passed with 59 percent of the statewide vote in November, after lawmakers sent it to the ballot.
“One thing that Massachusetts could learn from Wisconsin is that you just can’t underestimate how difficult it is to beat one of these amendments,” activist Chris Ott says on the video.
Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which collected more than 120,000 signatures in support of the amendment, took issue with Pocan’s use of “mob rule.”
“That’s a gross hyperbole, and totally uncalled for,” he said. “It was an exercise in democracy.”
The video also includes Massachusetts grandparents, saying their lesbian daughter’s marriage should be protected, and Lynn native Peter Hams arguing in support of his two mothers. MassEquality hopes the video strikes a chord with the handful of lawmakers who could kill the amendment.
“We’re working on a couple-dozen legislators,” said Marc Solomon, the group’s campaign director. “We have a full-on campaign to encourage legislators to come our way.”
The video is expected to be shown at dozens of weekend house parties designed to recruit more supporters.
Traditional marriage supporters are backing a proposed constitutional amendment, which needs the support of one-quarter of lawmakers or 50 – in two successive legislative sessions before landing on the statewide ballot.
In January, on the last day of their last session, lawmakers voted 62-134 to forward the question on to the new Legislature.
The House and Senate are scheduled to meet in a joint constitutional convention May 9, although both sides expect it will be continued to a later date.
“People want to vote,” said Lisa Barstow, spokeswoman for the group VoteOnMarriage.org, which supports the amendment. “They haven’t had the opportunity to vote. You could say the same thing about abortion.”
Traditional marriage backers held a lobbying day at the Statehouse recently and are “keeping the pressure on individual legislators,” Barstow said.
Solomon said there are 57 lawmakers today who he expects would support the amendment, a decrease from 62 because of the November elections and the resignation of Robert Travaglini, the former Senate President.
“Our job is to reduce that number to below 50,” he said. “Our side almost always loses. When a majority votes on the rights of a minority, it’s almost always the case that the minority group loses, historically.”
Last fall, eight states voted on amendments to ban gay marriage: Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin approved them. Similar amendments have passed previously in all 20 states to consider them.
Arizona bucked a strong national trend by refusing to change its constitution to define marriage as a one-man, one-woman institution.
Massachusetts gay rights activists hoped new Senate President Therese Murray, who will preside over the next joint session May 9, would use any one of a number of parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote.
Murray could call for the vote then or, as has been more typical on Beacon Hill, decide to recess the convention to a later date.
The Plymouth Democrat supports gay marriage but has said that ultimately she wants to give lawmakers a chance to weigh in.
Source: journaltimes.com