A post on the Marriage Equality Minnesota Facebook page Monday afternoon indicates lawmakers in the Gopher State state could be bringing a gay-marriage bill before the Generally Assembly as early as this week.
In 2008 Marriage Equality Minnesota’s marriage equality bill, “The Marriage and Family Protection Act,” was introduced in both houses of the legislature. This was the first such introduction in the State’s history.
This week, “The Marriage and Family Protection Act” will be introduced for the fourth time. Senator John Marty and Representative Alice Hausman are carrying the bill.”
The note urges readers to contact their representatives to support the bill. (Governor Mark Dayton says he would sign a marriage-equality measure if one crossed his desk.)
But less than a week ago on PolicyMic, Minnesota political wonk John Doble wrote that it was unlikely same-sex marriage would come before legislators anytime soon:
However, while proponents [of the constitutional ban] failed to reach the threshold needed to pass the amendment, they still garnered 48% of the vote. With public opinion so divided, it is unlikely that any gay marriage laws will pass during the 2013 session, but 2014 may be a different story.
Whatever legislators do, they will face a fired-up activist base: Despairing earlier in the year over their chances of stopping both the gay marriage and voter ID amendments, they have been renewed by their come-from-behind victory and legislators have already been feeling the heat. State Senate Majority Leader Tim Bakk (D-Cook) in particular drew fire for implying that the issue only concerned “some real liberal constituencies” rather than everyone as a whole. Things can only get more contentious.
If this Facebook tip is accurate, we can only pray Marty and Hausman have all their votes lined up. Marriage-equality fever is spreading like wildfire—we’d just hate for anyone to jump the gun.
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