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Loading ...Group seeks return of Mass. out-of-state gay marriage ban
08.16.2008 10:56am EDT
(Boston, Massachusetts) A conservative group is attempting to force a ballot issue on the repeal of a law used to prevent out-of-state gays from marrying in the Bay State.
Mass Resistance filed paperwork this week with the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office that would allow it to begin collecting signatures on a petition to force a vote on the issue.If it were successful in getting the measure on the ballot, it would not be before 2010.
Same-sex couples have been free to marry in Massachusetts since 2004, but only if they were residents of the state.
Then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R) dusted off a 1913 law that said marriage licenses could not be issued to couples whose weddings would not be recognized in their home states, and threatened to charge local clerks if they issued marriage licenses to out-of-state, same-sex couples.
The old law was originally passed when interracial marriage was legal in Massachusetts but not in most other parts of the country.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned state bans on interracial marriage, the Massachusetts law fell into disuse.
Last month, current Gov. Deval Patrick (D) signed legislation repealing the law.
Mass Resistance spokesperson Brian Camenker told the Assopicated Press on Friday that lawmakers and Patrick bowed to the will of the “gay lobby” by approving the repeal of the 1913 law.
The repeal effort is considered unlikely to succeed. Patrick has a high approval rating and polls indicated most Massachusetts voters are comfortable with same-sex marriage.
An attempt to put a measure on the ballot to ban same-sex marriage altogether in the state failed to win support in the legislature last year.
Rachel Miller: In the next ten years you say you see equal marriage in much of the United States? I think your estitmate is too conservative. I give it the next two years.
I agree BostonBud. They’re not “a conservative group”. They’re a hate group. I say call them what they really are.
They never give up, do they. I would suggest that conservative Christian / Catholic groups be renamed. Perhaps they could copyright “Hatred Forever” as their name or motto.
And they wonder why my whole family has nothing at all to do with the church of our birth. Nothing.
Someone said once It may have been Mark Twain – If Jesus came back today, he wouldn’t be a Christian, given how these groups always have to have a group to hate, be it, in history, Jews, Blacks, and now of course Gays.
I am preparing my bid for the expansion of Hell, so there will be lots of room for the leaders of these groups. Thermo-nuclear furnaces, etc for all the leaders who violate the most important messages of Jesus’ Life – “As you do unto the least of your brethren, you do unto me.”
That says it all!
It is excellent that the silly and stupid “1913 law” has been repealed – I only hope it is NEVER introduced back again – Come on it is 2008, wake-up bigots and homophobic morons! People have a right to marry other people, regardless of gender, race, religion and/or sexual orientation!
While any attempt to repeal or put forth a constitutional challenge is a threat, please know that here in MA this group is such an anomaly and so off the wall that EVEN THE RIGHT WINGNUTS HERE AVOID THIS MAN like the plague since he is so far off the wall…. even those who follow him have only one obsession GAY ISSUES alone! this man is obsessed with anything gay related that he spends his life and his money promoting any issue that will take away or halt the progress of anything positive about GLBTT issues!
This is no longer an issue. If the bigots succeed in getting this on the ballot it will have no chance of getting 50% of the vote. The ultimate nightmare has come true for the Christian Right. Gay marriage became legal in one of our states and people have learned that the gay couple next door IS NOT A THREAT. The people of California are now learning the same thing. If the anti-gay marriage referendum is defeated in CA this November, the Religious Right will need to find a new group to hate. I see gay marriage being legalized up the west coast and throughout New England within the next 10 years. Many moderate Christians are already bailing out on this issue as one of bigotry….not religion.
I have to agree with the consensus of the commentors thus far. What is the great big deal, especially in the year 2008 that gay people are finally gaining the legal rights and protections of marriage. Marriage has become a reality for Gay and Lesbian couples since 2001 when the Netherlands first legalized the practice in their country. Since that time other nations have followed and life as we know it continues to exist. To deny a group of tax paying and fully functioning citizens all the protections of the law just because of some religious fanatics who cannot wrap their mind around two people of the same sex being in love with each other is garbage. It is about time these people got over it, it is about time they grow up and face reality, gay marriage is here and it is here to stay. The community is finding its’ rightful place in the scheme of things and no amount of mumbo jumbo is going to change the march of history.
Please remind me again, how the USA is the land of the FREE, when none of her citizen are equal. You don’t have equal rights to health care or marriage throughout the country. The thought of having a woman or a black man for president is so horrifying to a lot of Americans. Land of the free my ass.
page 2 of previous comment (hit submit button by accident) or who is a gay couple from Massachusetts or from outside of Massachusetts who is worried about far right wings assaults on the institution of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts OR anyone concerned about protecting gay marriage in that state, or interested in Mass, gay marriage as a historical “first” for the gay community has any trouble asking this gentleman what more proof could you possibly need to see the significance of this very gay news item to so many in the gay community?
DUH! THIS IS A GAY NEWS ITEMS ABOUT GAY PEOPLE AND ABOUT THE FUTURE OF SOME OF THEM AS LEGALLY MARRIED TO EACH OTHER AND WHAT THEIR LEGAL FUTURE WITH EACH OTHER IS. HELLO!! I WANT TO KNOW RIGHT NOW IF MY RIGHTS AS FUTURE MARRIED HUSBAND TO MY MAN ARE GOING TO BE UNDER ATTACK BY THE RIGHT WING NUTS! So if need be I am ready to be a volunteer in MassEquality’s office to help in the fight to protect gay marriage in that state as I done before several times. I have given my time both at the MA statehouse rallies and in MassEquality’s office as volunteer when there were fights to both win and to later protect MA gay marriage.
I’m headed that way to get married in October to my guy of 35 years. Get over it bigots!
These idiots seem to think there’s not enough marriages to go around! If they can have several, why can’t my partner and I have just one? We’ve been together 34 years. I mean, I’m all for long engagements, but this is a bit ridiculous. They remind me of one of Vladimir Lenin’s quotes: “It is true that liberty is precious – so precious that it must be rationed.” And they call themselves Americans!
Even mentioning this as a news item is a mistake?
What was a true mistake were 100% irrelevant stories like the straight idiots torching their buddy’s balls with flammable alcohol-laden cologne, and the Democrat Party official who was gunned down in his office by a madman.
those were horrible incidents, but had no reported or actual proven connection to the issues of the GLBT community.
BUT ANYONE, (EVEN A TEENAGER CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT 365 GAY.COM NEWS IS RELEVANT TO THE GLBT COMMUNITY) WHO HAS THOROUGHLY FOLLOWED THE GAY MARRIAGE SITUATION IN MASSACHUSETTS AND WHO HAS BEEN TO THE RALLIES, OR ANY A
I think that even mentioning this as news was a mistake on the part of 365.com. As I read about the so-called ‘group” it became more obvious that it is not a group at all, just a couple of mentally-unbalanced persons working-out their personal conspiracy theories. Posting this here as news lends support and supplies free publicity to them, which simply feeds their need for attention. Ignore them and they will disappear. Mind you, I’m not saying we need to ignore all of our detractors — just that you should figure-out before publication who is a real threat and who is merely an unbalanced figurehead seeking publicity to feed their mental illness. Rather than lend credibility to bigots of this type, I’d rather see you just post “No news today, folks!”
What every article about this issue seems to lack is the information that MassResistance is a nationally recognized hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center no different than the KKK or the neo-nazis. You can learn more about them at http://www.masswatch.com which covers every post and rant they have put up on their website.
Good grief, will these people never give up on their bigotry? Time to admit it, folks: you lost bigtime.