REPLAY: Dayton Calls For Same-Sex Marriage
Southwest Minneapolis legislator leading the charge for legalization.
Photos
In Wednesday night's State of the State speech, Gov. Mark Dayton made a full-throated plea for the lawmakers to legalize same-sex marriage in Minnesota.
According to prepared text from the governor's speech sent to reporters, Dayton added this addendum:
Let me mention one other cause, which is controversial, but consistent with my faith and my principles. And, more importantly, consistent with this country’s founding principles and its Constitution. I believe that every Minnesotan should have the freedom to marry legally the person she or he loves, whether of the same or other sex.
Last year, Minnesotans began a conversation about why marriage matters, and we found our common belief that it is about love, commitment, and responsibility. I want Minnesota to be a state, which affirms that freedom for one means freedom for everyone, and where no one is told it is illegal to marry the person you love.
Southwest Minneapolis' Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-61) told Patch that, while Dayton has long been a supporter of same-sex marriage, he thinks the governor's full-throated support will prove significant.
"It shows his willingness to lead on this issue, and spend some political capital," Dibble said. "I think it gives (wavering) legislators space as they make their decisions to do the right thing."
Dibble is widely expected to lead the charge for same-sex marriage in the state legislature this session. In a press release issued while the governor completed his remarks, Dibble said the budget was priority number one.
"The state budget and our economy are the focus at the start of this session, as they should be," the statement reads. "There is also room at the right time to have this conversation, which, consistent with everything else the legislature is working on, is really all about helping families do well.”
In an interview last week, Dibble told Patch that any marriage debate in St. Paul depended on voters.
"It's significant that we can have a debate and an up or down vote on (legalization)," he said. "Like the campaign, we can have a civil conversation. The big variable is the level of engagement people take with their legislators. They've got to show (same-sex marriage supporters) that they're on solid political ground."
In recent days, local anti-gay groups like the Minnesota Family Council have exhorted their Facebook followers and email newsletter subscribers to lobby their legislators against legalizing same-sex marriage, and accused pro-legalization campaigners of trying to "buy" votes in favor of same-sex marriage.
"Minnesotans inherently understand that marriage is more than a government love license," Autumn Leva, a spokeswoman for Minnesota for Marriage, told the Star Tribune. "Authentic marriage is really about a personal promise with a public purpose that benefits everyone, especially kids, parents and our state's economy."
Ron West
11:44 am on Thursday, February 7, 2013
Another indication that Dayton's god complex is accelerating. Following emperor Obama's lead he now believes himself the all powerful potentate of this state. Since the metro liberals managed to overpower the outstate conservatives with sheer numbers of welfare recipients at the polls, they now are convinced their power is unbounded. We need to show these nanny state geniuses they do NOT speak for us!
Dan Johnson
6:38 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
"The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies." ( American Anthropological Association)
Dan Johnson
6:42 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
Gay people have always existed, no matter how well accepted or how severely punished. The reality is, gay people have formed bonds in the past and will continue to form relationships.
The question then becomes, are we going to accept reality and encourage strong, committed relationships around the shared values of family, fidelity, and responsibility, with the help of friends, family, and the government, or is it in the best interest of society to make laws that attack and demean such relationships, causing unjustified harm to those couples and their families.
Dan Johnson
6:45 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
"In the court’s final analysis, the government’s only basis for supporting DOMA comes down to an apparent belief that the moral views of the majority may properly be enacted as the law of the land in regard to state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in disregard of the personal status and living conditions of a significant segment of our pluralistic society. Such a view is not consistent with the evidence or the law as embodied in the Fifth Amendment with respect to the thoughts expressed in this decision. The court has no doubt about its conclusion:... DOMA deprives them of the equal protection of the law to which they are entitled."
Dan Johnson
4:44 pm on Friday, February 15, 2013
Marriage is a fundamental right of the individual.
Fundamental rights may only be delayed or restricted when a legitimate and compelling governmental interest for doing so can be demonstrated. Reasonable restrictions include age, ability to demonstrate informed consent, and not being closely related, or currently married.
Gender fails to provide a rational, legitimate governmental interest in restricting equal participation under the laws currently in effect.
Equal treatment under the law as promised in the founding documents and required by the 5th and 14th amendments, should be a quick and easy process.
There is no legitimate governmental interest served by denial of equal rights. Opposite gender couple families gain nothing, and same sex couple families are harmed needlessly. Time to pass equality and move on.