Mass same-sex marriage news
From: “Ken Sherrill” ken@kensherrill.com Date: January 2, 2007 7:02:42 PM EST To: “Kenslist” kenslist@groups.queernet.org
—–Original Message—–
From: Martha Ackelsberg [mailto:mackelsb@email.smith.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 6:43 PM
Subject: Up-date from Mass Legislator Stan Rosenberg on today’s
Mass.vote
Please forward to those interested. Martha’——–
I am writing to provide a report on today’s meeting of the
Constitutional Convention which is the last of this legislative term.
The news is mixed, but in my opinion should not be depressing. There
was insufficient support in the legislature to use parliamentary
maneuvers to block the progress of the citizen initiative to ban same
sex marriage. As a result we voted on the citizen initiative itself
and our opponents got 62 votes, which is 12 more than the necessary
50 to advance it to the next legislative session. Even after a
successful vote to reconsider that decision we were unable to move
any additional members today so the matter does move to the next
convention.
The good news is that their 12 vote margin of victory will be reduced
by 7 votes as there will be a net gain for our side among the
freshmen legislators to be sworn in tomorrow. So we will then only
need to find 5 new votes for our side prior to the next convention.
That next convention can take place any time as early as next week
and no later than July 31st, 2008. With Governor-Elect Deval Patrick
and Speaker Dimasi as strong supporters of same-sex marriage, I am
very optimistic that we will be able to find the votes to defeat the
amendment in the next term.
So while today is not the kind of day we’ve been used to in this long
journey with regard to this issue, it is still a day that offers us
some real hope for ultimate success. As I have said on many other
occasions, this is a civil rights struggle and civil rights struggles
are long, protracted, sometimes frustrating, and always challenging.
We must therefore be vigilant and maintain our resolve, energy, and
focus.
I am committed to continuing my efforts in this struggle and will do
my very best to help achieve the victories we need in order to
protect the rights of the LGBT community.
Stan Rosenberg