Tag: marriage equality

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Maine: GOP lawmaker regrets voting against marriage equality

A Republican lawmaker in Maine who voted against marriage equality while in office in 2009 now describes that decision as a “chicken thing for me to do.”

Stacey Fitts is appearing in ads throughout the state calling on others to take a more courageous stand than he did when lawmakers voted on marriage equality in 2009, and then when the state’s voters vetoed the law. He sat on the sidelines during the debate despite leaning pro-equality.

“As I watched that evolve, it became clear that I wasn’t in support of the veto effort,” he told the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. “And that I wouldn’t necessarily take a role — which, looking back, probably was another chicken thing for me to do.”

Fitts said he was secretly pleased marriage equality had passed through the legislature, and he told MPBN he’d voted against it only because he was following the party line.

In a television ad from Mainers United for Marriage released earlier this month, Fitts is making it clear he’s changed his mind and that he hopes other voters have too. “I voted against same-sex marriage in 2009, but I know some gay people and I’ve talked with them and with my family,” he said in the ad, continuing, “I don’t believe the government should tell anybody who they can love or who they can marry.”

Via the Advocate

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Brad Pitt donates $100K in support of marriage equality

Brad Pitt has donated $100,000 to the Human Rights Campaign’s marriage equality fund. They report via press release:

“Brad Pitt’s partnership with HRC in this closing week delivers vital resources into these campaigns and we’re proud to be working with him as we show that fundamental fairness will win at the ballot box,” said HRC President Chad Griffin.

“With his commitment, Brad joins HRC in a tremendous coalition of religious leaders, business leaders, labor groups, civil rights organizations and everyday, fair-minded Americans supporting marriage for gay and lesbian couples.”

“It’s unbelievable to me that people’s lives and relationships are literally being voted on in a matter of days,” said Pitt in an email today to HRC members and supporters. “If you’re like me, you don’t want to have to ask yourself on the day after the election, what else could I have done?”

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Minnesota anti-gay marriage amendment is close in polls

A new poll on Minnesota’s Amendment 1, a measure that would write marriage discrimination into the state’s constitution, shows that the race is still extremely close.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that 47% of registered voters oppose the amendment, an unchanged number, while 48% of voters support amending the constitution to define marriage as one man, one woman. That’s down one point from the previous polls. Five percent of people remain undecided, the paper says. Over 50% is needed one way or the other, and skipping the question qualifies as “no”.

Not surprisingly, most of the people who oppose the amendment know someone who is LGBT: 54% of people who are voting no know someone who is gay or lesbian. Surprisingly, 40% of those who say they want to enshrine discrimination know someone who is gay or lesbian. Those are Michele Bachmann’s people.

Minnesotans United for All Families, a group trying to stop the unnecessary and hateful amendment, remain hopeful that Minnesotans will see the amendment for what it is.

“When Minnesotans go to the polls, they’ll measure this amendment against their values of freedom and treating others as you would want to be treated,” said the group’s campaign manager, Richard Carlbom. “This amendment just doesn’t stack up to our values as Minnesotans.”

(source)

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President Obama supports pro-marriage equality ballot initiatives

Neal Broverman reports at the Advocate:

According to Paul Bell, press secretary for Obama’s re-election efforts in the northwestern state, “While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the president believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect. Washington’s same-sex marriage law would treat all Washington couples equally, and that is why the Presdient supports a vote to approve Referendum 74.”

Mainers United has released a message identical to the one above for Maine’s Question 1, as has supporters for Maryland’s Question 6 and the opposition “good guys” working against Minnesota’s anti-gay ballot measure.