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Loading ...NM partner bill dies in Senate
02.27.2009 8:00am EST
(Santa Fe, New Mexico) With less than an hour of debate in the New Mexico Senate, legislation that would have created a statewide domestic partnership registry for both same and opposite-sex couples is dead.
A similar bill is currently working its way through the House, but even if it passes it is unlikely it would be taken up by the Senate this year.Under the legislation, couples would have been able to have registered with local county clerks and receive certificates attesting their relationships. Partners would have had to attest they are over the age of 18 and not otherwise in a relationship.
They would have been guaranteed access to each other in hospitals and be able to make medical decisions for partners who are unable to make those decisions themselves, and they would be granted other state benefits and rights accorded to partners in marriages.
Opponents of the measure said that it threatened tradition marriage and was likely violated state law limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. A last minute rewriting of several portions of the bill to remove ambiguity between the registry and marriage failed to convince opponents.
In the end the legislation failed 17-25, with 10 Democrats joining all 15 Republicans in opposing the bill.
Previous attempts to grant some rights to unmarried and gay couples also failed in the Senate, but not by such a wide margin. In 2007, a bill was defeated by a single vote.
Outside the legislature, gay and lesbian couples who had gathered were visibly shaken.
“If you’re mad, you should be mad,” Equality New Mexico’s Linda Siegle, told the group. “The people in this building said you are not equal, you are not worthy, you do not deserve the same rights as most of them have.”
” I share the sadness of everyone in New Mexico who hoped this vote would go differently and the state would take a step toward recognizing equality for all New Mexicans,” said Joe Solmonese, President of the Washington DC-based Human Rights Campaign.
“Today’s vote helps no one in the state of New Mexico. It protects no one’s marriage. It grants dignity to no couple’s relationship. It does nothing to ensure that all families receive the equal rights and responsibilities they deserve. But no one is giving up. It has been a long, hard struggle for couples and families in New Mexico who simply want equal rights, and this effort continues, as it does across the nation.”
The bill had the support of Gov. Bill Richardson (D).
“I’m disappointed by the Senate’s actions today in defeating what is fundamentally an issue of civil rights and equality,” Richardson said in a statement.
In 2003, Richardson issued an executive order providing state employees, both gay and straight, with the option of providing their partners health insurance through domestic partner coverage.
Five other states – California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, and Vermont – as well as the District of Columbia have enacted domestic partner or civil unions laws that provide the same benefits under state law that would have been provided by the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act in New Mexico.
Two states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, recognize marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples under state law. Three states, Hawaii, Maine, and Washington, provide limited rights to gay and lesbian couples who enter into a domestic partnership or similar relationship. Currently, no gay or lesbian couple receives any of the more than 1,100 federal rights and benefits available to married couples, and the New Mexico bill would not have provided any of these rights.
No, it was 10 DEMS that voted no along with all REPS. We lost by four votes, last we we lost by two, two years ago, we lost by 1. We are going downhill.
http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/09%20Regular/bills/senate/SB0012SVOTE.pdf
In a year in which we made New Mexico a solid blue state for the first time in history, both US Senators are DEMS and all US House Reps are DEMS, including adding six new members to the state house and senate and we still lose?!
The Catholic Church for the first time got heavily involved and actually started lobbying to Senators to oppose this bill.
http://newmexicoindependent.com/19390/catholic-church-flexes-muscles-in-domestic-partnership-debate
I suggest EVERYONE contact the IRS and tell them to start making the Church pay taxes for breaking US Laws:
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0%2C%2Cid=106778%2C00.html
The IRS reminded Churches not too long ago about not getting involved in politics or legislation, they have CLEARLY violated US tax laws:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0%2C%2Cid=175818%2C00.html
and
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0%2C%2Cid=163392%2C00.html
A shame the concept of political assassination isn’t more popular….
James Withers Said:
“Bud…
Nothing strange really. For some reason the system puts the majority of your comments in the “pending for approval” section. We’ll get the tech department to clear that up.
Have a good day.
Sincerely,
James”
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That was several weeks ago…
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Actually, the “program” still screens out innocuous comments from me from time to time. I’ve spoken with others who have had the same complaint. It just looks bad.
…So, you are wrong Jennifer. It does happen, intentionally or not. And more often apparently than you realize.
You still need to work on the “filtering” program or it just makes it more difficult for some people to maintain spontaneous exchanges with others in the forum community here.
Otherwise, good job!
~ Bud Evans
This saddens me. I really like parts of that state. Dear Husband wants to retire there. But I will not go until things change…luckily that is a least 19 years away.
Tradional Bigotry wins again. No Hetreo marriage will be diminshed by giving same sex couples the barest minimum of protection. I am really beginning to HATE the church of pedophile hypocrite closeted priest.
All this defense of marriage B.S. is like the Jim Crow laws of the past.
Tom in Long Beach
“James Withers even admitted that this site has a “hit list” program which automatically “flags” people for whatever nefarious reasons the editors contrive. ”
James Withers said no such thing. Here is what I said:
“While it would make a great story, there is no “black-list” as suggested. What I did admit is t the system we use, on its own, selects which comments to publish and which to mark as pending. Those marked as pending then have to be approved manually. I’m not a tech person so I can’t tell you why this happens; however, [the]issue is technical. Not political.”
While the censorship angle can gin up your moral outrage, it’s not the case here.
Enjoy your day.
Sincerely,
James
ps: and by the way: if 365 is nothing but a den of censorship, why are we having this conversation?
Btw, local media are saying it was 8, not 10, Dems who voted against… and one of those was the supporter who changed his vote in hopes of moving for reconsideration later today.
It’s time we take this to the courts. If our party turns their back on us, I am not waiting until the these old DINO’s retire and are replaced by younger, more progressive members. It’s time the courts decide, that separate but equal is unconstitutional.
Another day, another defeat. I too have begun to explore other ways to further our fight toward equality. I WILL never take for granted that political parties will “save us” from our adversaries.
Hi,
We don’t screen comments. We have anti-spam software that tries to cut down on the “Buy Viagra!” bot comments – before we had it, we were getting thousands of those a day, and they were overwhelming the actual comments of readers.
We try to moderate AFTER the fact for sexism, racism and homophobia – but as our readers know, we are so lightly staffed that often we miss comments that we should have caught.
The delay is due to the cache. We have the same delay when we post.
Please don’t accuse us of things that aren’t true.
Thanks.
Jay
So, the New Mexico State Senate is obviously controled by Democrats—that “liberal, pro=gay party” and yet ten of them voted for bigotry. Prejudice is just as ugly no matter which political party promotes it, but like in New York State, Democrats are proving they are one thing before elections and quite another after the votes are in!
You ever notice a delay in your comments being posted? Sometimes not appearing at all? When is 365gay.com going to stop screening people who add astute political insight to this “desert of ideas” poor excuse for a GLBT political site? James Withers even admitted that this site has a “hit list” program which automatically “flags” people for whatever nefarious reasons the editors contrive.
Stop doing it! You act just like Republican Right-wing thugs who spit on the 1st Amendment when you do that.
Stop screening people who don’t use obscenities, but who just simply express a different view-point. Shame on you at 365gay.com and your Gestapo of Politically Correct censors.
Just because you’ve been “acquired” by the CBS TV network empire in the US (which by the way, owns LOGO and heavily censors and sterilizes it as well)… there is no excuse for 365gay.com to become a corporate tool for repression by “screening“ peoples thoughts and opinions first in the GLBT community before appearing (if ever) on your so-called readers comment forums.
What was once a non-PC, non-segregated cyber-neighborhood for ideas and opinions, 365gay.com now has become just another GLBT Uncle Tom for the heterosexist-dominated corporate American media by trying to reposition the carts in the Free Market Place of Ideas. The result has been to intimidate some readers into not expressing their own opinions extemporaneously in a free flow exchange with other commentators and without being carefully screened first by censors at 365gay.com which may delay the posting of their comments for several hours (if at all) after the discussion has ended. That is detrimental and needlessly repressive to public discourse.
Shame on the staff at 365gay.com…they should know better.
The only reason momentum was building over the past few years for this legislation was because Richardson pushed so hard on it. He turned many reluctant Democrats in years past, but his power has obviously now been severely weakened. While it’s no surprise that all the Republican state senators voted against the bill, I can’t believe that TEN Democrats joined them in opposing same sex couples (17 Democrats voted for the legislation).
It’s a sad defeat. It’s also a stinging reminder for progressives that although the entire state is now “Blue,” this is because of the support of many Catholic Latinos who vote Democratic but are socially conservative. Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos are the only truly progressive “islands” here.
What your article did not say is that the 3 Roman Catholic Bishops in the state came out strongly against the bill, with calls being made by some Catholics to deny communion to any who voted for the bill. Rumor has it that efforts to reconfigure the bill continue, and that one of the dems voted “no” in order to possibly file a motion to reconsider.
I used to love that state but we all have to remember it’s full of fat rednecks and racists who would just as soon kill us as take our credit cards. I sold my house in Santa Fe last year as that lovely city is surrounded by one of the most homophobic places in the country. Isn’t John McCain just a baby step away?
well another state in America to avoid going too…America shrinks further!