Well, we lost this round. Our local allies, Jay Costa and Wayne Fontana, voted no, but even with Republican Jane Earll they couldn't prevent the “marriage protection” amendment from being voted out of committee. The legislation heads for the Appropriations Committee and then to the floor of the full Senate.
Here's how the vote went down. Note that Jane Orie went with the bigots, even though she didn't cosponsor the amendment.
I have had a really tough day at work so coherent commentary may be out of reach for this lesbian. When I think of the outrage over the Sally Kern hate-spew, I can't help but wonder if each of those people calling for her resignation took the time to weigh in on this particular issue right here in Pittsburgh. Right here.
Cause guess what? Last time around, our Senators played political footsie to have their homo-friendly appeal and keep their traditional Catholic values voters happy. I'm guessing not much has changed. This amendment calls for a ban on civil unions which may have repercussions for heterosexual couples as well as reach far beyond marriage to impact health care decisions and estate decisions and so forth. This apparently is the deal breaker for the Republi-bigots. Strip out the civil union language and they take their toys and go home.
It disgusts me that we have so few people willing to just say “hey its wrong.” Instead, we have to play games and engage in the same old, same old. I am so tired of being a political football.
I'm just really tired.
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Does this thing really stand a chance of getting passed, state-wide? My assumption was that the math couldn't possibly work out, but maybe my assumption is wrong.
For me, it is not the likelihood of passage. It is the political maneuvers our elected officials, specifically our Senators, will go through to (perhaps *must* go through) to ensure the bill fails simply because there aren't enough men and women of conviction in the Senate. And by conviction, I mean the common decency and guts to say “enough” to bigotry and hatred, to say “enough” when excessive anti-gay legislation is being rammed down their throats, to say “enough” when tempted to pander to family-value proponents in their districts as if my family is on a second-tier. The fact that our Senators had to propose an “alternate” hate-amendment to defeat the “real” hate-amendment is just mind boggling. I hope our straight blogging allies will take a moment to give this some attention.
Doug Shields for Senate.
WOO!! DOUG SHIELDS FOR SENATE!!!
The math could very easily work out in favor of conservatives. This has a very good chance of passing in the Republican controlled Senate.
In the PA House, it would probably either go to the Judiciary or the Governmental Affairs Committee. Both are chaired by Democrats that are good on our issues.
However, Dems control the PA House by LITERALY A SINGLE VOTE. If just one person dies, resigns, switches their vote or loses their election, Dems will lose control of all the Committees in the PA House.