Constitutional Amendment Moves Forward

The U. S. Constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage made it out of committee today in the Senate and will now be debated by the full Senate in June.

It didn't happen without an unusual bit of drama, at least between two straight men. As the hearing was winding down, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) stormed out after exchanging barbs with committee chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania). Specter told Feingold, "If you want to leave, good riddance." Of course, the fact that the hearing was being held in a room approximately the size of a closet may have helped fray nerves. Wouldn't want the voters to see this process at work, would they?

As with most things on Capitol Hill these days, the Judiciary Committee vote was 10-8, strictly along party lines with the Republicans holding the advantage.

The ACLU has set up a page on their web site to make it easy for concerned citizens to contact their congressmen and indicate their opposition to this discriminatory piece of legislation. I would strongly encourage anyone interested in fairness and equality for ALL Americans to click through on the link and make sure their voice is heard.

In a related item, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is still trying to do damage control following his recent interview on The 700 Club. As part of this, he gave an interview to "The Advocate".

While Dean is strongly opposed to this constitutional amendment, he won't take a stand FOR same sex-marriage.

Advocate: "Do you personally support marriage equality for same-sex couples?
Dean: "I’ve never answered that question. What I have said is that I support equal rights under the law for every single American. "

It sounds like the Democrats, or at least their leadership, will play defense and try to avoid additional restrictions to same-sex marriage, but don't count on them trying to help any gay or lesbian couples actually get legally married, at least not at this time.