MPR’s Tom Scheck reports that a committee in the Minnesota Senate has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and its legal equivalents in Minnesota.
The committee voted down a different version of the proposed amendment that has generated so much controversy in recent years. The newer version would have prohibited the judicial branch from defining marriage, reserving that power for the Legislature. The new measure failed on a 5-4 party line vote, with all DFLers voting against it.
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TOM SCHECK: The long awaited Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was a far cry from the typical hearing at the State Capitol. For starters, people needed a ticket to get into the committee. Two blocks of 50 tickets each were available to the public. 50 of those who supported the amendment, 50 to those who oppose it. About an hour before the hearing started, staffers were outside the hearing room, handing tickets to people who had reserved them.
SPEAKER 1: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 2: For him?
SPEAKER 1: Awesome, thanks.
SPEAKER 3: Do you want to have talking points? We have him on the back of our [INAUDIBLE] flyer.
TOM SCHECK: One of the people waiting to get into the committee room was Helen LaFave of Minneapolis. She's a lesbian, and is the stepsister of Republican Senator Michele Bachmann of Stillwater. Bachmann is the chief author of the proposed Amendment to ban same-sex marriage. LaFave says she's taking the debate over gay marriage personally.
HELEN LAFAVE: I simply wanted to remind Michele that she does have family members that this affects in a very real way. And I have not had any contact with her for a couple of years, and she's never discussed this with me.
TOM SCHECK: The hearing itself was a bit anticlimactic. Both supporters and opponents were given 45 minutes each to testify. Catholic priests, legal scholars, and family experts, testified for both sides on the issue. Senator Bachmann told the committee it's necessary to pass a constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage, so the courts can overturn the state's existing Defense of Marriage Act. That law forbids gays to marry in Minnesota. Bachmann says the courts have allowed gay marriage in Massachusetts, and she warns there are court challenges to the Defense of Marriage laws in Iowa and Washington.
MICHELE BACHMANN: This is a race between lawsuits and amendments. If this Amendment is not passed this session, members, the people of Minnesota will be silenced until 2008 before they get another chance to vote. This will allow the Amendment opponents two more years to redefine marriage in the court system rather than through the legislature.
TOM SCHECK: Before the final vote, the committee agreed to a Republican proposal that would have allowed only the legislature, not the courts, to change the definition of marriage, but it did nothing to prevent the measure's widely expected defeat. Bachmann has been unsuccessful in getting the full Senate to vote on the measure, but she says she'll keep trying, even though it failed in committee.
It already passed the Republican controlled House. If it passes the senate, a question would be put on the November ballot asking if marriage should be defined as between one man and one woman. If a majority of those voting in that election say yes, the Constitution would ban gay marriage, civil unions, and any other legal equivalents. Supporters of the First Amendment included Robert Johnson. He told the committee he is gay, but said he was married to a woman for 25 years and has four children. He says gay marriage is necessary only in the minds of gay activists.
ROBERT JOHNSON: Gay marriage would contribute to the disintegration of one man, one woman marriage, coupled with disintegration of normal family life, which has seen enough disruptions over the last 50 years.
TOM SCHECK: But opponents of the measure say amending the Constitution would deny gay couples the legal rights available to married heterosexual couples on matters such as hospital visitation and inheritance. DFL Senator John Marty of Roseville voted against the proposal because he says amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage would only take away the few civil rights that gay families have.
JOHN MARTY: I think it is nothing more than enshrining discrimination in the Constitution. And yesterday, we said on the Senate floor, we all pledged liberty and justice for all, not for liberty and justice for our straight families. And the signs outside all tell us that we should let people have a vote. Civil rights has never been something we should put up to a vote.
TOM SCHECK: The committee vote basically kills the Bill for the session, although supporters of the First Amendment say they will continue to push for a full Senate vote on the measure. That's unlikely, since the DFL majority has been reluctant to allow the Bill out of committee. It's more likely that the measure will be a major political issue in the upcoming election. That's because all 201 legislators, and all four of Minnesota's constitutional officers are up for re-election. Reporting from the Capitol, I'm Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio News.