06/26/2008
Arizona Senate May Reconsider Marriage Ban Soon
Yesterday I posted that the proposed ballot measure that would put a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage before Arizona voters had been rejected in the Arizona senate by a 14-11 vote. I mentioned also that the senate voted to reconsider the measure at another date.
Turns out that date could be as early as Friday:
"When it became apparent the proposal had just 15 votes, one fewer than it needed, Phoenix Republican Sen. Linda Gray — a supporter — switched her vote in a procedural move that will allow her to request the measure be brought back for reconsideration in the waning days of the legislative session. That would give another supporter, Sen. Karen Johnson, a Mesa Republican who is on vacation, time to come back and vote. The surprise roll call Wednesday, which had been weeks in coming, quickly spun into a heated debate over marriage and 'social norms.' It took place even though supporters knew it would be difficult to rally enough votes with Johnson absent. Three other senators, including Tucson Democrat Victor Soltero, were absent, but opponents of the measure say all three are against it...Supporters blamed Johnson for the failure, without naming her directly. Johnson, however, in a Senate memo Monday, indicated she expected the marriage referendum vote to come on Friday and would 'make a special effort' to return for it even though she planned to be gone through July 10."
Senate stalls gay-marriage amendment [arizona daily star]
Posted 11:34 AM EST by Andy Towle in Arizona, Gay Marriage, News | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
The AZ Republic has a slightly different take on this. They're reporting that Sen. Karen Johnson, a Republican who runs on a pro-family platform, has had a change of heart about gay marriage thanks to her friendships with Arizona's 2 openly gay senators. So she purposefully left town to sabotage the vote.
It's like the keystone cops are running Arizona.
Posted by: crispy | Jun 26, 2008 11:58:26 AM
The Keystone Cops have been running Arizona for a while. We have about a 2 billion dollar deficit and they are wasting time on gay marriage.
Posted by: homer | Jun 26, 2008 12:27:32 PM
This issue has already been put to the voters and failed.
The Arizona Republic leaves comments open on azcentral.com and the haters all are out in full force.
There is still a sentement out there that being gay is a choice. Straight guys think this because they don't realize they are bi.
Also, closet cases are foiling efforts for change because they a comfortable with their gay trysts.
Posted by: Ty | Jun 26, 2008 3:53:19 PM
I saw in news channel that two men marrying in Amsterdam.I think that media is also raising the topic between gay marriage.The marriage civil law is available in 6 countries, they should keep their concentration on the next generation not on the gay marriage, if a man marrying a man than what should woman do....
Stuart Denley
Arizona Alcohol Addiction Treatment
Posted by: stuartdenley | Aug 22, 2008 2:13:17 AM