Ban on gay marriage defeated, 45 to 151
Great news; no ugly battle at the polls next year. Thanks to the great work by Mass Equality, The Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, and Glad, among other organizations and individuals that helped convince a number of legislators to vote on the side of justice and equality.
http://www.massequality.org/howtheyvoted.php
I don't know where the list of how people voted the last time is to see who changed, but I suspect it will be in the Globe tomorrow and on http://ww.boston.com
I wonder just how much arm twisting the Gov and the House and Senate leaders did...
Depends on how much energy and resources they feel like wasting. Every vote the legislature has taken on this subject has been more in our favor than the one before. AFAIK, no legislator has been punished at the polls for opposing the amendment, and several have been punished for supporting it.
If the sociologists are correct and demographically the fundie's numbers are starting to slip (some 40+ years after Europe), they're fighting a losing battle and in the end will become the fringe freakshow they really are.
similar situation in the Gt White North
the becoming-part-of-everyday-normal-life is quiet but very powerful. there has been same-sex marriage in Canada for almost exactly 4 years now (it was 10 June 2003, 4yr last sunday, with a court decision in Ontario), civilisation has not ground to a halt, and the sun has come up bang on time every day since then. It fades to a non-issue in the civil society.
of course, it's more of an issue in the Anglican Church, where we'll be debating same-sex unions and marriages in the church next week. I'm off to Winnipeg (in june ye cats i'll be bled to death by mosquitos) on sunday to wave the rainbow flag. but the ordinariness of same-sex marriage will be one of the arguments advanced in our favour.
Re: similar situation in the Gt White North
He recently came out (to me and other college buds, at least) and says that even these remote fishing villages are fine with "the gays."
Re: similar situation in the Gt White North
I've never met Jim (my goodness, jim and astroboy in the same room - potent combination), but have contact with him a couple of ways through Integrity, the Anglican/Episcopal GLBT group. He was one of the very earliest to sign on to an open letter to churchy types that I'm keeping the singature database for , and he's also in my newsletter database.
I've actually driven through Cow Head - it's amidst Gros Morne national park on the west coast of Newfoundland - but as I was trying to catch the afternoon ferry across the straights of Belle Isle that day, I didn't stop. And this was years and years ago (another dead wench!)
I'm not identifying your friend in this public space, but I'm chris dot ambidge at utoronto dot ca if you wish to go the PVT EMAIL route