Minnesota Senate Clears Way for Same-Sex Marriage
Published: May 13, 2013 - New York Times
ST. PAUL — Gay couples will be permitted to wed in
Minnesota starting in August, making it the 12th state to permit same-sex
marriage and the first in the Midwest to take such a step outside of a court
ruling.
The State Senate, controlled by Democrats, voted 37 to
30 on Monday to allow same-sex marriages, after approval by the State House last
week. Gov. Mark Dayton, also a Democrat, had urged lawmakers to pass the measure
and said he would sign the bill on Tuesday afternoon.
“In my heart of hearts, I know that today love wins,”
State Senator Tony Lourey, a Democrat, said Monday during a tense, often
personal debate before the vote. Hundreds of people on both sides of the issue
packed the halls of the Capitol here, chanting, cheering and waving signs with
clashing messages — “Don’t Erase Moms and Dads” and “Marriage Equality, You
Betcha.”
Supporters portrayed the choice as a historic decision
on the biggest civil rights question of this era and as a simple matter of
fairness, while opponents said that the bill carried numerous unintended
consequences and that Minnesotans needed more time to weigh such a divisive
matter.
“Where does this stop?” said State Senator Torrey
Westrom, a Republican. This choice, he said, will send Minnesota “down that road
of taking mother and father out of our recognition of what our children need.”
Nationally, advocates of same-sex marriage lauded
Minnesota’s move, saying it would add momentum to similar efforts elsewhere,
including in at least one other Midwestern state, Illinois, which is considering
a provision legalizing same-sex marriage. Critics of the Minnesota measure,
meanwhile, predicted that the vote on Monday would carry a lasting political
price for the state’s Democrats in coming elections. They also said that barring
a sweeping ruling by the United States Supreme Court establishing same-sex
marriage as a right, other states were not likely to follow Minnesota’s lead in
a sudden wave of legislative changes.
In a way, Monday’s vote was a startling shift in the
conversation in this state. For much of 2012, Minnesotans had been debating an
amendment to the state Constitution that would have done the opposite — define
marriage as between a man and a woman. While 30 states have adopted such
provisions, Minnesotans in November rejected the amendment and sent majorities
of Democrats to both chambers of the State Legislature, setting off an intense
new push to legalize same-sex marriage.
“That whole constitutional amendment backfired on
them,” Amy Britain, 46, said Monday as she and other supporters of same-sex
marriage rejoiced around the echoing Capitol rotunda after the vote. She said it
proved that Minnesotans, like many Americans, had changed their views on
marriage.
“This means everything,” Ms. Britain said of the vote.
“It was only a matter of time before people would realize that we’re just folks
— we’re in people’s congregations, we’re in the grocery store, we’re
everywhere.”
The issue had pitted this state’s most urban area,
around the Twin Cities, against rural sections of the state where lawmakers said
support was more uncertain. In both chambers, voting fell along largely partisan
lines.
In the end, four Republicans in the State House and
one in the State Senate voted to allow same-sex marriage, while two House
Democrats and three Senate Democrats voted no.
Around the state, dueling campaigns had emerged in
recent days with television advertisements, leafleting and even an R.V. tour
outside the Twin Cities. Opponents of same-sex marriage argued that voters had
elected lawmakers to manage the state’s fiscal issues, not take significant
steps on divisive social issues. Some cited religious beliefs for their
opposition.
“It’s an objective reality that every baby has a mom
and a dad,” said the Rev. Thomas McCabe, a Catholic priest who stood among a
crush of people inside the Capitol.
The vote here comes as part of a wave of victories for
same-sex marriage advocates around the nation. This month alone, lawmakers in
Delaware and Rhode Island made similar moves, and voters last fall approved
measures in Maryland, Maine and Washington.
While efforts to allow same-sex marriage have
flourished on the East Coast, the middle of the country has been different.
Since 2009, Iowa has been the only Midwestern state that permits gay men and
lesbians to wed, though that was decided in a State Supreme Court ruling. In
Illinois, which allows civil unions, State House members are considering a
same-sex marriage bill already approved in the State Senate.