A Spork in the Drawer

Good News From Pennsylvania!

For a change:

A bill that would amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage is in a deep coma and is probably dead, at least for the rest of this session.

Faced with staunch opposition to the measure in the Democrat-controlled House, the main sponsor, Sen. Michael Brubaker, R-Lancaster, asked the Senate last evening to table the bill indefinitely, and it agreed.

[...]

Mr. Brubaker denied those claims and said his bill was not a biased attack on gays and lesbians. He said that all the bill did was to make it clear that Pennsylvania believed that the only type of marriage that would be publicly and legally recognized was the joining of one man and one woman.

[...]

"I have a healthy respect for the homosexual community. I have a healthy respect for heterosexuals. I have a deep respect for the institution of marriage. I am standing for marriage. I am not standing against any individual sector of our society."

Methinks Sen. Brubaker doesn't quite understand the meaning of the word "respect," healthy or otherwise. Anyway, the more such bills are pushed off into the future the less likely they'll ever be passed.

People are wising up.

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The Good Guys Win One

Aravosis reports that the House voted 237-180 to pass the Hate Crime Bill.

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Joisey

I suppose it's a start:

Facing pressure from the state's top court, the New Jersey Legislature voted Thursday to give gay and lesbian couples the rights and privileges of marriage, while using the term "civil unions" to describe the partnerships.

The vote in the General Assembly was 56-19. The Senate vote was 23-12. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he would sign a civil unions bill into law.

However:

Steven Goldstein, director of Equality New Jersey, told Bloomberg that the vote was a mixed blessing for the state's gays and lesbians because there was no guarantee non-government entities would honor the decision.

"Nobody knows what civil unions are in the real world. That's the problem,'' Goldstein told Bloomberg. "We want marriage equality, not a law that discriminates.''

Someday people will look back on this "debate" and wonder what the hell was our problem.

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