By now, everyone knows that Massachusetts has become a focus of the fight for equal marriage rights for same sex couples. The state's supreme court ruled that refusing to allow same sex couples to marry was unconstitutional in Massachusetts, as it created a set of second class citizens. Since then, over 8000 same sex couples (and counting!) have married in the commonwealth. Can you see the sky falling? Me neither.
Since the legalization of same sex marriage, those opposed to it have tried everything they can to take away the rights of homosexuals across the state. It has now come to a ballot initiative. There were many signatures for the petitions to get this on the ballot that were
collected fraudelently. The ballot initiative has now gone to the legislature.
The state legislatures constitutional convention began today with 21 items on the agenda. Robert Travaglini, President of the Commonwealth Senate, intends to hold a vote on each of the 21 items. The ballot initiative to define marriage as between a man and a woman is number 20. There are many possibilities as to how this could play out. Since the marriage ban is item 20, it may not even be reached today. If the legislature doesn't move on the vote today, they would probably reschedule to another day before the end of the year to finish out the agenda. According to the newscast I saw this morning, in order to move it up on the agenda there would have to be a unanimous vote of the convention, which will absolutely not happen.
In order for any item on the agenda to be debated, 101 of the 200 members must vote to debate. If more than 100 vote nay, it would end discussion and a vote would not occur. Though possible, this is unlikely to happen as well.
To make it to the ballot, the initiative must be approved by 25% of the legislature, or 50 votes, in two consecutive years. This means the earliest it could make it onto the ballot would be 2008. People on the side of removing civil rights claim to have the 50 votes they need.
Today the Boston Globe carried a story about many leaders asking the legislature to drop the issue. In it, Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute says
"Polls show that Massachusetts has the most negative image of the 50 states, and the capstone of why people around the country feel that way is the legalization of same-sex marriage."
I really don't know what poll he's talking about. I didn't have time to do a very extensive search, but you'd think that if this supposed poll was real that they'd have it plastered all over their website.
This morning the sides were staked out on Beacon Street by 8 am; the battle lines were drawn. Equal civil rights were supported in front of the state house, while those in favor of discrimination in the state constitution stood across the street. When I arrived at 11, one thing was very striking. Almost every poster on our side was hand made and carried a unique message, a testament to the effort being put forth to preserve equal marriage rights in Massachusetts. The only mass-produced ones were the Mass Equality "No Discrimination in the Constitution" ones, but they were vastly outnumbered by the more personal ones. On the other side, I counted a whopping three (THREE!) posters that were made by hand. Almost everyone on the other side had a green, machine copied poster that said "Let the people vote." The people holding them hid behind that message all day. Very few of them, at least when I was there, had anything to say about what most of them were probably there for, but now that it's later in the day I can see a huge "Jesus is the Lord" balloon floating over their side of the street. I can still hear the crowds from my office overlooking Boston Common. I can't really see both sides of the street from here, but since this morning the anti-civil rights side has lost about a third of its supporters, leaving behind their photocopied protest signs.
Here are some of the pics I managed to snap while I was out there.
Our side staked out by 7:30 this morning in front of the state house.
Some guy on the other side started chanting "mommies and daddies, mommies and daddies," whatever that was supposed to mean, to which a few mothers on our side shouted back, "Mommies and daddies make gay babies!" These are two loving parents who joined the rally.
The other side with their mass-produced signs. How creative. How long will they hide behind their "Let the people vote" message?
Don't say that all religious groups are against equal marriage rights. There were several churches who were represented at the rally.
The UUs have supported equal marriage. This banner is displayed boldly on the side of the Unitarian Universalist Association's building facing the state house grounds.
UPDATE: It's 5:15, the rally that started early this morning around 7:30 is still going strong (and LOUD!) almost 10 HOURS LATER!!
UPDATE 2: The vote on the marriage ballot initiative has been postponed to November 9, 2 days after the 2006 elections. Anyone who lives in Massachusetts and wants to help preserve marriage equality rights should find out who is running in their state legislative districts and what their stance on this initiative is! Since there are so many, many democrats in the state house, it's important to see who may be challenging your reps in the primaries! We had a great success two years ago with Carl Sciortino defeating conservative "Democrat" Vincent Ciampa in Somerville to give us a guaranteed progressive vote. We can do this throughout Massachusetts!