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(Minneapolis) - Senate Majority Leader Dean E. Johnson is admirably
focused on the issues of concern to most Minnesotans, and on keeping the
state from veering off into the wrong direction, says Ann M. DeGroot,
Executive Director of OutFront Minnesota, the state's leading
organization serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
community and its allies.
"Despite repeated efforts by House leadership and the Governor to
distract legislators from pressing business in order to consider an
ill-conceived constitutional amendment on marriage, Senator Johnson has
shown courage and commitment in remaining focused on solving problems
Minnesotans face," said DeGroot. "The Senate has understood this entire
session that the anti-marriage amendment distracts from doing the
people's business, including passing bonding bills and balancing the
State budget."
Extremist legislators, led by Sen. Michelle Bachmann (R – Stillwater),
continue to demand that critical decisions be held hostage to their
single-minded drive to compound Minnesota's misguided 1997 Defense of
Marriage Act by writing discrimination into the state constitution for
the first time. The proposal was passed by the House March 24, but
defeated by the Senate Judiciary Committee March 26.
"Surveys have consistently shown that most Minnesotans, while divided on
the preferred manner in which to create a legal framework for same-sex
couples and their families, have opposed changing our fundamental legal
document in a way to foreclose all possibilities," says OutFront
Minnesota Public Policy Director Monica Meyer. "Nonetheless, amendment
proponents have sought to short-circuit both Senate procedural rules and
the constitutional-amendment process in order to advance their unwanted
measure."
Meyer pointed out that the proposal would not only bar marriage equality
for same-sex couples, but would also tie the hands of the Legislature by
preventing it from finding any other solution to the challenges same-sex
couples and their families face by being denied the chance to form
legally-recognized relationships.
"The question of the fundamental inequality currently imposed on
same-sex couples is indeed an important one," agreed DeGroot, "but the
Senate is wise to refuse to consider a measure that would prevent it
from fixing that problem, and to demand instead that the Legislature
focus on ways of moving Minnesota forward, not backward."
Contact:
Ann M. DeGroot, Executive Director
(612) 822-0127, ext. 107
Monica Meyer, Public Policy Director
(612) 822-0127, ext. 115
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