BOSTON (ABP) — Massachusetts legislators decided July 12 to postpone voting on the politically charged gay-marriage issue until after the November elections.
Legislators, meeting in a constitutional convention called by Gov. Mitt Romney (R), voted 100-91 to adjourn without considering an amendment to ban further same-sex marriages in the state. Massachusetts has been the only jurisdiction in the United States with legalized gay marriage since 2004, after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said the state's constitution required extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.
Opponents of gay marriage — including Romney — have been attempting to amend the Massachusetts Constitution to trump the court's order ever since.
The postponed vote would have been on whether to send the measure to the state's voters. It would have required only 50 of the state's 200 legislators to approve it in two successive legislative sessions to then be placed on the state's 2008 election ballot.
But it was the next-to-last item on the session's agenda. Legislators had worked through about half of the proposals on their plates when they voted to adjourn until Nov. 9, rather than working late into the night to get to the marriage vote.
“This move shows the flagrant disregard for the will of the people by Senate President [Robert] Travaglini [D] and every legislator who voted to recess the convention until November,” said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute and spokesperson for the VoteOnMarriage.org, the umbrella group working to get the amendment on the ballot, in a press release.
But Travaglini's spokesperson told the Boston Globe that the legislature merely postponed the vote rather than scrapping it altogether.
“After [4 1/2] hours of debate, a majority of lawmakers determined that we would not be able to get through the full calendar today,” said Ann Dufresne. “And with only two weeks left in the legislative session, they are anxious to resume their work finalizing the budget, taking up overrides, and acting on important legislation and other initiatives.”
While polls show a slim majority of Massachusetts voters supporting legalized same-sex marriage, they also show a similar majority supporting a referendum on the issue.
In other gay-marriage news:
— A Connecticut judge ruled July 12 that the state does not unconstitutionally burden gay couples by not offering them marriage, because the state's civil-union law offers them virtually the same rights and responsibilities as marriage; and,
— A New York judge said a Long Island school district did not have to extend retirement benefits to the husband of a retired male employee. The men were wed last year in Canada, where same-sex marriage is legal, and argued they had the right to spousal benefits offered by the state. The judge cited a recent ruling by the state's highest court determining the New York Constitution does not require the state to legalize gay marriage.
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