In the last five years, groups supporting the constitutional marriage ban have spent five times as much as opponents.
In other states that have faced an anti-gay marriage ballot, people of faith have been sidelined. In Minnesota, they’ve been involved from the beginning.
OutFront Minnesota responded that “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are not broken” or in need of repair.
On Tuesday, two groups called on Sen. Amy Klobuchar to sign on as a cosponsor of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) noting that she is the only Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee who has not taken that step.
Business leaders, Democrats and LGBT groups are unified in one aspect of their opposition to a Republican Senate bill that would but a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage on the ballot in 2012: Gay marriage is a distraction from Minnesota’s economic needs.
“I stand with you,” was the message Gov. Mark Dayton had for LGBT advocates on Thursday afternoon at OutFront Minnesota’s LGBT Lobby Day at the Minnesota Capitol. Dayton was the first sitting governor to address the annual rally, which has been held for more than a decade. Dayton said he will block any efforts to curtail LGBT equality.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar will support a bill that would repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) when it comes up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on which Klobuchar serves, state Sen. Scott Dibble has indicated. DOMA currently prevents same-sex couples legally married in five states, Washington, D.C., and one tribal nation from receiving the federal benefits of marriage. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder decided in February to halt defense of DOMA citing its probable unconstitutionality.
While Minnesota bans same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples working for government offices, there is one way same-sex couples can be recognized: through domestic partnership registries. On Tuesday, the city of Richfield became the ninth Minnesota city to approve a domestic partner registry, and today LGBT advocates say that 1 million people live in cities across the state that recognize same-sex relationships.
After years as a low-profile issue at the Minnesota Legislature, same-sex marriage is likely to become a source of controversy next session. New Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate bode well for efforts by the Minnesota Family Council and the Catholic Church, both of which hope to place a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the ballot in 2012. Republican leadership has been mum on the prospect so far, and despite long odds, LGBT advocates hope to advance a few key provisions of their own in 2011.
Archbishop John Neinstedt says Minnesota’s bishops will be distributing “more than one million” DVDs across Minnesota just weeks before the election. Part of an orchestrated campaign against same-sex marriage, the DVDs were funded by an anonymous donor and produced by the Knights of Columbus, a group that donates to the National Organization for Marriage, which is also running anti-gay marriage ads in Minnesota. While Neinstedt says the effort isn’t about politics, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group slammed the new campaign.
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