gay

State Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley, said Friday that he will not vote for the Marriage and Family Protection Act, a bill that would make Minnesota’s marriage laws gender-neutral, allowing same-sex couples many of the rights currently denied by Minnesota statute. Koering, who is gay and a Republican, said he would vote against it because the state faces bigger problems.

When she was five, Amy Johnson’s mom took her to a counter-protest at the then-new Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway in St. Paul. Her mom gave her a placard to hold, she recalls, and with three words — “Come on, honey!” — “an activist was born.” Ever since, she’s been active in the reproductive rights movement. After months of searching, OutFront Minnesota has hired Johnson, a longtime lawyer who’s helped countless GLBT families navigate the confusing world of family law, as executive director of the state’s largest public policy and advocacy group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. I recently met with Johnson at her office in the fittingly named Rainbow Building in Minneapolis to talk about the future of the GLBT movement in Minnesota, the sense of grief and urgency California’s Proposition 8 has evoked in the community and how technology might impact OutFront’s future.