The Gay Fray

[Tiassa]

Today, Tomorrow, and Two Years Ago
Minnesota Senate affirms marriage equality

Celebrate! Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis), and partner Richard Levya join demonstrators outside the
Minnesota State Capitol after Dibble's marriage equality bill passed the state senate. The governor will sign the bill tomorrow.

David Bailey brings us the news:

The Minnesota Senate gave final approval on Monday to a bill that will make the state the 12th in the United States to allow same-sex couples to marry and only the second in the Midwest.

The majority Democrat state Senate voted 37-30 to approve the bill legalizing gay marriage, putting Minnesota on the verge of becoming the third state in the nation to approve same-sex nuptials in May after Rhode Island and Delaware.

The state House approved the measure last week.

Democratic Governor Mark Dayton has said he will sign the bill on Tuesday. The law would take effect August 1.

The Minnesota civil rights victory is especially poignant. It has seemed apparent for years that the heterosupremacist movement has been digging its own grave in order to stave off marriage equality, and the showdown in the north land is perhaps the clearest demonstration:

The vote on Thursday was a sharp reversal for Minnesota's legislature. Two years ago, Republicans controlled both chambers and bypassed the governor to put forward a ballot measure that would have made the state's current ban on gay marriage part of the state constitution.

Minnesota voters in November rejected that measure and also voted in Democratic majorities in both the state House and Senate, setting the legislature on the path toward Monday's vote.

Republican Senator Warren Limmer, a sponsor of the proposed amendment two years ago, has said the legislation will change how businesses work, clergy speak from the pulpit and school curriculums are shaped.

"Prior to the marriage amendment (vote) in November, many people were warning that this day would come," Limmer said in an interview last week.

One now might be given to wonder where Minnesota would be in the gay fray had conservatives not pushed for extraneous hostility toward the LGBT community. A state constitutional amendment would not have trumped the U.S. Constitution, and what happened in November set the stage for what is happening now. Three states approved marriage equality by popular vote, and Minnesota voters rejected the new super-double probation against their homosexual neighbors. It is not unreasonable to ask whether this would be happening in Minnesota right now had the right wing not gone so far out of its way to reaffirm its well-known cruelty.

Perhaps Minnesota would have avoided this vote, which brought Republican Rep. Peggy Scott to tears over such a divisive issue, had conservatives not gone out of their way to be divisive. Perhaps the North Star State would have ducked under the radar until after the Supreme Court rules in June.

Who knew? Where's Eric Cartman when you need him?

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow we get to raise our glasses in celebration: Minnesota!
____________________

Notes:

Bailey, David. "Minnesota poised to become 12th state to embrace gay marriage". Reuters. May 13, 2013. USNews.NBCNews.com. May 13, 2013. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...e-gay-marriage

[Syzygys]

I wonder if 40 years from now they will look back to the anti-gay movement as the segregationists in the 60s....

[Tiassa]

I wonder if 40 years from now they will look back to the anti-gay movement as the segregationists in the 60s....

Yes. I think, however, it will be a little more ... er ... um ... gay? Joyous? Humorous?

People aren't going to be looking back at the KKK, police dogs, fire hoses, and so on. Rather, we're going to be looking back at Michele Bachmann, Bryan Fischer, Tony Perkins, and any number of activists and politicians, and laughing at how insanely stupid and crazy the heterosupremacists are.

There will be the murders and the martyrs, of course. But as with Stonewall, only gays could find themselves in the middle of a civil rights riot and decide to stage an impromptu musical.

We are the Stonewall Girls; we wear our hair in curls.
We always dress with flair; we wear clean underwear.
We wear our dungarees above our nellie knees.
We ain't no wannabees; we pay our Stonewall fees!

Imagine being a cop responding to a riot call and finding yourself up against a kick line of singing protesters.

Imagine being a cop in the middle of a riot who finds himself face to face with a lesbian who is upset that you're only arresting men.

Stonewall was, simply, the best riot ever.

And, you know, sure it's not quite building the economy of a growing nation the way slaves did, but homosexuals will always be able to look back on the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and laugh about the things they could get heterosexuals to do. The clothes they wore. The trends they followed. People will look back and chuckle about how some gay bars in the 1990s were swamped by heterosexual couples because the women preferred dancing there.

And heterosexuals will get to join in on the fun. There are fairly common stories in my generation like "my grandmother didn't know Liberace was gay".

There will also be tears, for the injustices inflicted and endured, but there will be mashups of Rick Santorum's tantrums against gays, and all sorts of greatest hits web pages recounting the most awesomely stupid things various heterosupremacists ever said in public.

The end of heterosupremacist prohibition will be one of the longest-running festivals of future history.

[Tiassa]

Minnewhatsthat? Minnewhosit? Minnefahqueue?
Minnesota!

"I feel like I’ve just watched a revolution from start to finish."

—Rev. Meg Riley

With Elysian Space Dust in one hand, and, well, it's legal, now, where I live in the other ...

Governor Mark Dayton on Tuesday made Minnesota the nation's 12th state to allow same-sex couples to marry and only the second in the Midwest, signing a bill on the steps of the state Capitol before thousands of supporters.

The Democratic governor's signature came a day after state senators approved the bill, which made Minnesota the third state this month to approve same-sex nuptials after Rhode Island and Delaware.

The Minnesota law takes effect on August 1 and Minneapolis, the state's biggest city, said on Tuesday that City Hall would open just after midnight on the first day same-sex couples can marry and Mayor R.T. Rybak will be on hand to officiate that night.

"It is now my honor to sign into law this next step for the state of Minnesota to fulfill its promise to every Minnesotan," Dayton told the crowd in St. Paul before signing the bill flanked by its key Democratic sponsors, Senator Scott Dibble and Representative Karen Clark.

(Bailey)

... it's true, I'm enjoying this way too much. As I told a friend on Sunday, I think I'm enjoying this more than I did our own state's victory. But, in truth, it's sort of an impressionistic thing.

In 1997, Minnesota passed its own state-level DoMA.

In 2011, with heterosupremacists reeling in other parts of the gay fray, North Star conservatives for some reason decided it would be a good idea to join the list of idiot states bumping their official homophobia from statutory to state constitutional priority. And while this might highlight the hypocrisy of weepy bigot morons like Rep. Peggy Scott (R-Andover), the more important thing that happened was that the vote was slated for November, 2012.

By chance, what should have been a no-brainer, back-page election result was catapulted into a blazing, flaming spotlight when Minnesota voters, recognizing the tides of history as they joined at the ballot box their neighbors in three other states that were actually expected to validate marriage equality, decided the time had come to stand up to the bullies.

It is entirely possible that if Minnesota had not been the grand slam, that fourth run, this bill would not have happened.

But the Supreme Court held its breath, deigning to not engage the issue before the election, but, rather, after. Lumens. Focus. Heat.

And then things just went crazy.

Rural DFLers were a particularly tough sell, coming from districts where a move to redefine marriage cut against bedrock religious values.

“Public opinion is changing, but it’s just slower in greater Minnesota,” said Rep. Jay McNamar, an Elbow Lake DFLer who first revealed his position when voting for same-sex marriage last week.

Guns and gays

Then another issue surfaced that shattered already fragile party unity: the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Suddenly, some DFLers were rolling out tough new gun legislation, proposals fiercely opposed by the National Rifle Association and a powerful group of rural DFL legislators.

Democrats fought bitterly among themselves for weeks, divided over the two explosive issues, guns and gay marriage.

With his caucus seemingly deadlocked on both issues, DFL House Speaker Paul Thissen made a surprise announcement.

He declared the gun issue dead for the year, a rarity in an institution where nothing is considered dead until the session is over.

Several legislators said Thissen’s announcement was a subtle but important breakthrough for the marriage issue, a personal priority for Thissen and other top DFLers.

“The gun issue was muddying the marriage issue,” said Rep. Tom Anzelc, DFL-Balsam Township.

He said several DFLers had argued passionately behind closed doors against bringing marriage up for a vote this year. They feared it would be too politically damaging for rural members and could cost the party its hard-won majority.

Anzelc said that a tough vote on gay marriage plus an equally difficult vote on gun control could be political suicide for some legislators.

Once the gun issue went away, he said, shaky rural members had time to reconsider the same-sex marriage issue and their place in history.

Ultimately, most of them — including the NRA’s highest-rated DFL members — voted for same-sex marriage, adding the crucial margin that solidified the bill’s passage.

(Helgeson)

Raise a glass, and, Prometheus! my lance!

Celebrate.

My deepest thanks to evangelical Christians, the Minnesota Republican Party, and the NRA for helping bring marriage equality to the North Star State. This bill would not have happend without you.
____________________

Notes:

Bailey, David. "Minnesota governor signs bill legalizing gay marriage". Reuters. May 14, 2013. Reuters.com. May 14, 2013. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...94D19P20130515

Helgeson, Baird. "Minnesota gay marriage deal has roots in gun debate". The Star Tribune. May 14, 2013. StarTribune.com. May 14, 2013. http://www.startribune.com/politics/...207066671.html

[Tiassa]

France!
Hollande says, "Oui", signs marriage equality law

We've seen this coming for a while, especially since the French debate included what might have been the "gayest" protest against marriage equality ever, well described by the title, "Shirtless, Masked and Gagged Straight Men Protest Gay Marriage in France".

But the news is in, and as Associated Press reports:

France will see its first gay weddings within days, after French President Francois Hollande signed a law Saturday authorizing marriage and adoption by same-sex couples and ending months of nationwide protests and wrenching debate.

Hollande's office said he signed the bill Saturday morning, a day after the Constitutional Council struck down a challenge to the law and ruled it in line with France's constitution.

Congratulations, France. And many thanks from your neighbors all around the world.
____________________

Notes:

Brathwaite, Lester. "Shirtless, Masked and Gagged Straight Men Protest Gay Marriage in France". Queerty. April 22, 2013. Queerty.com. May 18, 2013. http://www.queerty.com/shirtless-mas...ance-20130422/

Charlton, Angela. "French President Signs Gay Marriage Into Law". Associated Press. May 18, 2103. HuffingtonPost.com. May 18, 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3298916.html