On Tuesday, April 12, starting at 1 pm, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing on several bills that can only be described as legislative gay-bashing:
- House bill 652, a bill of address that requests the removal from office of Justices Marshall, Greaney, Ireland, and Cowin (the Goodridge majority);
- House bill 653, a new proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, ban civil unions, and ban domestic partnership benefits (this would have to be passed by the next legislature as well so it could not go to the ballot until 2008); and
- House bill 654, a bill that would undo all same-sex marriages performed since Goodridge went into effect.
These are all wacko proposals, and none of them seems likely to pass. Nonetheless, MassEquality is trying to turn out the pro-marriage forces so that the legislature realizes that people really do care about this issue. (There are also some pro-marriage bills on the agenda: three that would codify Goodridge, and one that would repeal the infamous 1913 law.)
So if you’re interested and available, the hearing is in room B-2 in the State House. B-2 is in the basement, and it is not easy to find (as I recall, you have to take the elevator that is behind the Nurse’s Hall on the second floor – the ones in the front of the building on the first floor don’t go to the right place). And it’s a small room – there will not likely be enough seats for everyone who shows up. But if there are a lot of people standing around the halls wearing MassEquality stickers, the legislators will get the message.
By coincidence, I will be at the State House with with the Episcopal City Mission today, lobbying on housing issues (more, not less!) and I will pass the word on to the people I see there. Unlike some other denominations, our leadership (both clergy and lay) has had the courage to speak out in support of gays and lesbians.
Is it also behind the door marked “Beware of the Leopard”?
Interesting that it’s happening on the day of the Suffolk 18 special election (as well as 3rd Berkshire, 12th Suffolk, IIRC).In Allston/Brookline, both Moran and Tom O’Brian support marriage; I don’t know much about Dan Kontoff “the Bagel Man”. He’s green-rainbow, so I’d suspect that he too supports marriage.Think there’s an intentional connection? If so, which side do you think it helps?
Good Luck today. The committee chairman, O’Flaherty, is not in favor of gay marrigae. Can we expect some shananagans.
My guess: all of these bills, both pro- and anti-marriage, get sent to the legislative death chamber known as a “study.”
Ha! If you want to see how the Article 8 alliance feels about today’s hearing, check out their house newspaper today.http://www.massnews.com/index.shtmlEmile Goguen is the sponsor of all these batty bills and they decided not to tell him when they were doing a hearing! It caught both sides by surprise.
Thank you for posting that!I outline my take on the 1913 law here.