Sadly, the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, voting 105-92,
gave final approval for this year to a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages but providing for civil unions.
More below.
The
adopted amendment reads:
"The unified purpose of this Article is both to define the institution of civil marriage and to establish civil unions to provide same-sex persons with entirely the same benefits, protections, rights, privileges and obligations as are afforded to married persons, while recognizing that under present federal law same-sex persons in civil unions will be denied federal benefits available to married persons.
"It being the public policy of this commonwealth to protect the unique relationship of marriage, only the union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in the commonwealth. Two persons of the same sex shall have the right to form a civil union if they otherwise meet the requirements set forth by law for marriage. Civil unions for same sex persons are established by this Article and shall provide entirely the same benefits, protections, rights, privileges and obligations that are afforded to persons married under the law of the commonwealth. All laws applicable to marriage shall also apply to civil unions.
"This Article is self-executing, but the general court may enact laws not inconsistent with anything herein contained to carry out the purpose of this Article."
It had been revised this morning to insert the language about not granting federal marriage rights. Accordingly, the fundamental charter of governance for the people of Massachusetts could soon include not only a deprivation of fundamental civil rights, but also a statement about "present" federal law.
So that's it for this year. Under the established process for amending the Massachusetts constitution, the amendment needs to be approved again by another constitutional convention next year and then win a majority of votes on the November ballot.
How it will fare next year isn't clear; next year won't be an election year, and many legislators grudgingly approved this amendment just for the sake of demonstrating that they wanted the voters to get to vote on something. And how it would fare on the ballot is even less clear, since both same-sex supporters and opponents will campaign against it (since it simultaneously bans same-sex marriages and establishes civil unions).
There's a sense that no one likes this amendment, but that they had to vote for something. Hopefully next year they'll realize that what they got isn't worth having. And in the mean time, the other more virulently anti-gay amendments have been defeated.
No roll call on the final vote is yet available. Roll calls on the first and second votes are available on the Boston Globe's website.
