Some good news from Indianapolis this evening:
A proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in Indiana likely was dealt a fatal blow today when a key lawmaker said he would not give the issue a hearing.
Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, who is chairman of the House Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee, said today that the most urgent issue facing the state is property taxes, not same-sex marriage, which already is banned by Indiana law.
So in other words, Pelath doesn't think it's a good use of resources for the state legislature to spend time and money worrying about a constitutional amendment to ban something that is already illegal.
It's pathetic that something so commonsensical is controversial.
More:
"I’m not planning on having a hearing," Pelath said. "The short session (of the legislature) was designed to deal with emergencies. We have a very serious problem with the property tax system, and we don’t have any gay marriages in Indiana."
The Senate committee plans to debate the amendment Thursday, but Eric Miller, who has pushed for passage of the amendment as founder of the conservative group Advance America, called that "disingenuous."
Sanity prevails.
In the end, what this means is at the earliest, a gay marriage ban could come up for a vote in Indiana in 2011.
But there's good news on that front, even if it goes before Hoosiers for a vote:
A November poll for The Indianapolis Star and WTHR (Channel 13) showed that 49 percent of Hoosiers support the amendment, down from 56 percent in 2005.
So it appears that even if it does come to a vote, Hoosiers might not be as gullible to the whims of the religious right as one might think.
Time and education are key.