"Above all, this is a question of conscience. Using the initiative process to give a minority fewer freedoms than the majority, and to inject the state into fundamentally private affairs, is a dangerous precedent, and an unworthy one for this Commonwealth. Never in the long history of our model Constitution have we used the initiative petition to restrict freedom. We ought not start now."
"We have work to do over the next year to turn this around. I am heartened by the fact that the overwhelming majority of the members of the Legislature - a margin of over 2 to 1 - voted to move on. I pledge to do what I can to build on that momentum, so that our Constitution will continue to stand for liberty and freedom, and not discrimination."
- Deval Patrick, Massachusetts Governor-elect on the Massachusetts Legislature's decision to vote on a measure to advance a gay marriage ban to the ballot. Patrick is pro same-sex marriage.
5 comments:
So, he's talking about not restricting freedom, but is trying to ban gay marriage? Glorious contradiction.
Meso,
I didn't preface this one well enough... I just threw up the quotes and happily ran off to sleep.
Patrick is for same sex marriage and was against the Legislature's desision to vote on the issue (if they hadn't voted, it would have killed the petition). The freedoms, rights, private affairs, etc. were directly addressing same sex marriage.
Okay, it kind of felt strange on the first reading. Is he going to try to veto the legislation, or does Massachusetts allow for an overide vote?
I'm glad to be on his side, but I doubt he has much sway over the legislature.
Basically, from what I read, this is a vote by the legislature to determine whether or not the issue will be on the 2008 ballot. It seems that all it will need to make it to the ballot is another vote by the new legislature. I don't think the governor actually gets a say as it's a ballot issue rather than a law. So yes... he doesn't have much sway. I'm glad to hear him so clearly come out as pro-same-sex marriage, though. It seems pretty darn rare in politics.
It’s also heartening that about 2/3 of the legislature voted against it. Unfortunately, it only needs 1/4 of the vote to make it to the ballot.
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