Just six months after becoming the first state to reject a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, Minnesota is poised to become the twelfth state to legalize it.
A jubilant crowd of supporters erupted into applause as the Minnesota State Senate passed legislation Monday extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. The bill passed the Senate by a 37-30 vote; all but two Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party senators supported the measure, while all Republicans but one opposed it.
The Senate vote came on
The bill’s chief sponsor, State Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, spoke movingly during floor debate about his husband, who he married in California in 2008, and said the measure would not change marriage, but expand it. “We were lucky to be able marry during the narrow window in 2008 when all marriages were legal in California,” Dibble said, reading from a letter to colleagues that he wrote in February. “Our family, who had always been loving and supportive, understood us and had a connection to our relationship in a way that just didn’t exist previously. Marriage is simply meaningful in ways that nothing else is.” Dibble also praised generations of Minnesota activists for same-sex marriage, including the late State Senate President Allan Spear, DFL-Minn., one of the first openly gay legislators in the country, and Richard Baker and Gerald Nelson, who unsuccessfully sued in 1971 for the right to marry. Senate Republicans tried repeatedly to amend the bill, which would have forced the bill back to the House for further action. The effort included an unsuccessful attempt to allow businesses to discriminate against same-sex married couples. Still, even as the bill’s opponents railed against the legislation, they had to concede that the tide of progress was working against them. “Some have said, ‘But don’t you want to be on the right side of history?’ The truth is I’m more concerned about being on the right side of eternity,” said State Sen. Dan Hall, R-Burnsville. In an odd way, Hall and other opponents of marriage equality were responsible for today’s historic vote. In 2011, the then-Republican-controlled legislature voted to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot banning same-sex marriage. The move backfired spectacularly; in November of 2012, voters in Minnesota rejected the amendment and swept the GOP out of control in both the House and Senate. The coalition that successfully beat back the amendment turned its energy to fighting to eliminate the state’s ban on same-sex marriage altogether, pushing their allies in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to bring the issue to a vote. In February, marriage equality was endorsed by DFL Gov. Dayton; State House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis; and State Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook. On Monday, Minnesotans United, the organization that successfully fought to stop discrimination from advancing, and then successfully fought to roll it back, was celebrating. “Nearly two years ago to the day, the Minnesota Legislature put a hurtful amendment on the 2012 ballot that would’ve organization said in a statement. “The Minnesota Senate has just taken a historic is likely to be joined soon by Illinois, where marriage equality has already passed the state senate. Since May 1st, three states — Delaware, Minnesota, and Rhode Island — have legalized same-sex marriage. Dear Truthout Community, If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done. We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement. Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth. There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset. After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you? It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so. We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way. We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work. Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together. With love, rage, and solidarity, Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn