September 26, 2005: A victory in Massachusetts. A lopsided vote in the state Legislature defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would have ended marriage rights for gays and lesbians, establishing state-sanctioned civil unions instead.

Both proponents and some opponents of same-sex marriage hailed the vote, with anti-gay groups saying they prefer a more restrictive amendment that doesn’t allow for civil unions. Organizers are now attempting to gather enough signatures to place such a measure on the ballot in 2008.

Most encouraging for me was the amount of legislators who changed their minds. One stunning example was in the Boston Globe:

‘’I do think that a lot of people have been thinking over the last year,” said Senate Republican leader Brian P. Lees, who abandoned his support of the amendment even though he was one of its cosponsors.

Even a cosponsor of the anti-marriage amendment now admits that ending marriage discrimination hurts no one. Now, that’s progress!

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 17th, 2005 at 3:26 am and is filed under The Fight for Equal Marriage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.