Well, we finally have a date for the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention to vote again on whether or not to do away with marriage equality in Massachusetts. It’s September 14. Here’s some background.
Late in 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court handed down its ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. They ruled that the Bay State’s exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage violated the Commonwealth’s constitution.
Last spring, the General Court met as a Constitutional Convention to debate an amendment to the Constitution that would bar marriage equality. After four days of maneuvering, debating, and voting, stretched out over a couple of months, the General Court passed an amendment that would ban marriage equality but create civil unions by a vote of 105-101. We lost, but the most odious amendments were all defeated.
Last fall, pro-marriage equality candidates picked up two seats in the general election. Since then, equality candidates have won two special elections, taking seats previously held by marriage equality opponents. Additionally, at least two legislators who voted for the amendment last year have publicly vowed to vote against it this year. If things stay that way, we will defeat the amendment.
Something else that makes the defeat of this amendment more likely is the efforts of our leading homohaters. They’ve decided to pull their support from the current amendment, and go through the initiative process to place a different amendment on the ballot. The difficulty behind that amendment is that it only requires the approval of 25% of two consecutive legislatures, instead of the 50% required for legislatively initiated amendments. These folks are hoping to have the amendment on the ballot for the 2008 election (barring some kind of legislative maneuvering, it will probably be on the ballot).
Here’s how you can help:
Donate to MassEquality. Ambassador James Hormel has agreed to match every dollar donated with fifty cents of his own money. So, your gift will be worth 150% of what you give.
If you live in Massachusetts, contact your legislators. There has been a major lull in political activity over this issue, and many legislators probably haven’t heard from constituents since last year’s ConCon. They need to be reminded that marriage equality is good for Massachusetts.
If you know people in Massachusetts, have them contact their legislators. There has been little coverage of the issue here in the Bay State since the one-year anniversary of the first marriages back in May. Most people probably aren’t aware that equal marriage rights can still be taken away.
We can win this. The majority of Bay State residents now support marriage equality. Winning will require outworking the homohaters, though–and those fuckers are driven!
[Ed: Ok, I changed the title.]