New Mexico Senate Kills Bill Giving Equal Rights to Gays
After brief debate, a bill that would have given registered domestic partners in New Mexico the same rights as married couples was rejected yesterday, despite last minute re-writes to the bill:
"Supporters of the bill did a last-minute
rewrite to remove references that could be construed as
marriage-related, but that wasn't enough to win the necessary votes. Ten Democrats joined the chamber's 15 Republicans to defeat the bill 25-17. 'I'm
disappointed by the Senate's actions today in defeating what is
fundamentally an issue of civil rights and equality,' said Democratic
Gov. Bill Richardson, who has been pushing the legislation for several
years. The bill has gotten snared in the Senate for the past couple of years, although the House has passed it previously. It
would have allowed gay or straight unmarried couples to register as
domestic partners and have the same legal protections and benefits as
married couples. There are still three weeks left in the legislative session, but it appeared unlikely the measure could be revived. 'If
you're mad, you should be mad,' Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for Equality
New Mexico, told a dejected crowd outside the Capitol. 'The people in
this building said you are not equal, you are not worthy, you do not
deserve the same rights as most of them have.' Siegle said religious groups were influential in the bill's defeat."
Equality New Mexico's Siegle and Peter Simonson of the ACLU address supporters after the vote, AFTER THE JUMP...
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Unfortunately, my home state has disfigured itself from "a place where nobody cares what you are doing and nobody wants to know what it is" to a place where "everybody wants to know what you are doing and to tell you not to do it". In the last twenty years, an influx of Staten Islander retirees has fueled the growth of a non-native moralistic Christianist enclave in Rio Rancho that has combined with the no- (and know-)nothing baptists from the o'l patch in the south to try to impose their twisted Babble-belting beliefs on the rest of the populace. The respectful of others cowboy culture has been replaced by an intrusive moralistic cabal that wants to "convert" the left-over hippies, gays, Chicanos, and other iconoclasts.
There is also an undercurrent of resentment of the recent arriving "Hollywooders" (e.g., Shirley Maclane, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Stephen Speilberg, etc.) whose second homes in Santa Fe have priced long-term (e.g., my families have been living there for four hundred years) [now] New Mexicans out of the housing market. No one who actually works in Santa Fe can afford to live there. Residents are forced to sell the homes in which they have lived for hundreds of years because they cannot afford the taxes. Santa Fe now consists of million dollar adobe "ranchitos" surrounded by ramshackle trailer parks.
New Mexico is akin to a third world economy with one of the highest per capita millionaire, PhD ratios, and private jet ownership rates in the country pitted against one of the highest drop-out (almost 50%), teen pregnancy, traffic death rates and highest percentage of single mother families living below the poverty line. In New Mexico, one is likely either very well educated and upper middle class or barely literate and literally "dirt poor".
Combine that combustable social mix with a notoriously corrupt and stupid political regime and I am hardly surprised by this result.
Posted by: rudy | Feb 27, 2009 8:43:47 AM
Good, NEXT!
The sooner we lose all these states, the sooner we get off this foolish track we are on of begging and pleading state by state.
Come on people, get some spine or you'll be headed to the ovens soon!
Posted by: Marc | Feb 27, 2009 9:45:12 AM
Stabbed in the back by 10 "Democrats". All should be targeted in the next election cycle and given primary challengers. I thought New Mexico offered a good chance of passage. The fight must be taken to Washington. The 50 State plan will not work and will prove too costly in the long run. It's another sad day in America.
Posted by: Bob R | Feb 27, 2009 10:21:48 AM
I was there in 91 trying to get that billed passed. I felt then as I do now that we treated the people in office with more respect then they deserved - ...asking for respect ...asking for our rights is never going to work.
One good note. In the video above the woman in the Brown Jacket and yellow plaid shirt and purple bag ran for public office in Santa Fe and won after that 91 fight. Maybe that is the best outcome of the efforts in NM. The city different became a little more diverse.
Posted by: fred | Feb 27, 2009 10:50:41 AM
I agree, lets make public this 'group of ten" who together sank the chance to protect domestic partners. Those Dem's should be ashamed of themselves. Where are their 'family values'?
Posted by: Grego | Feb 27, 2009 10:55:57 AM
God bless the people who were working so hard for this
Posted by: will | Feb 27, 2009 11:49:57 AM
this brought tears to my eyes
Posted by: KFLO | Feb 27, 2009 5:55:34 PM
president obama needs to step up and federize this mess already...
OK, I hate to say this kind of thing again, but... that was it for the activists? Looks like about 20-25 people. In a state of 2 million?
We have 1/3 their population and we recently had some 300 people at the Statehouse. What's up with that? Do we think there are really that many more gay people in Vermont?
I guess everyone who was calling for the boycott of Hawaii (even though the bill hasn't yet passed or failed) can add New Mexico to that list.
Unfortunately, there's no way Obama is going to federalize this any time soon. The cries of violating state rights would be painfully loud, and would distract from every other policy goal of the administration. Just like gays in the military and the eventual DADT did to Clinton in his first months. Every Midwestern and southern state would throw a huge fit, as would many others.
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Unfortunately, my home state has disfigured itself from "a place where nobody cares what you are doing and nobody wants to know what it is" to a place where "everybody wants to know what you are doing and to tell you not to do it". In the last twenty years, an influx of Staten Islander retirees has fueled the growth of a non-native moralistic Christianist enclave in Rio Rancho that has combined with the no- (and know-)nothing baptists from the o'l patch in the south to try to impose their twisted Babble-belting beliefs on the rest of the populace. The respectful of others cowboy culture has been replaced by an intrusive moralistic cabal that wants to "convert" the left-over hippies, gays, Chicanos, and other iconoclasts.
There is also an undercurrent of resentment of the recent arriving "Hollywooders" (e.g., Shirley Maclane, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Stephen Speilberg, etc.) whose second homes in Santa Fe have priced long-term (e.g., my families have been living there for four hundred years) [now] New Mexicans out of the housing market. No one who actually works in Santa Fe can afford to live there. Residents are forced to sell the homes in which they have lived for hundreds of years because they cannot afford the taxes. Santa Fe now consists of million dollar adobe "ranchitos" surrounded by ramshackle trailer parks.
New Mexico is akin to a third world economy with one of the highest per capita millionaire, PhD ratios, and private jet ownership rates in the country pitted against one of the highest drop-out (almost 50%), teen pregnancy, traffic death rates and highest percentage of single mother families living below the poverty line. In New Mexico, one is likely either very well educated and upper middle class or barely literate and literally "dirt poor".
Combine that combustable social mix with a notoriously corrupt and stupid political regime and I am hardly surprised by this result.
Posted by: rudy | Feb 27, 2009 8:43:47 AM
Good, NEXT!
The sooner we lose all these states, the sooner we get off this foolish track we are on of begging and pleading state by state.
Come on people, get some spine or you'll be headed to the ovens soon!
Posted by: Marc | Feb 27, 2009 9:45:12 AM
Stabbed in the back by 10 "Democrats". All should be targeted in the next election cycle and given primary challengers. I thought New Mexico offered a good chance of passage. The fight must be taken to Washington. The 50 State plan will not work and will prove too costly in the long run. It's another sad day in America.
Posted by: Bob R | Feb 27, 2009 10:21:48 AM
I was there in 91 trying to get that billed passed. I felt then as I do now that we treated the people in office with more respect then they deserved - ...asking for respect ...asking for our rights is never going to work.
One good note. In the video above the woman in the Brown Jacket and yellow plaid shirt and purple bag ran for public office in Santa Fe and won after that 91 fight. Maybe that is the best outcome of the efforts in NM. The city different became a little more diverse.
Posted by: fred | Feb 27, 2009 10:50:41 AM
I agree, lets make public this 'group of ten" who together sank the chance to protect domestic partners. Those Dem's should be ashamed of themselves. Where are their 'family values'?
Posted by: Grego | Feb 27, 2009 10:55:57 AM
God bless the people who were working so hard for this
Posted by: will | Feb 27, 2009 11:49:57 AM
this brought tears to my eyes
Posted by: KFLO | Feb 27, 2009 5:55:34 PM
president obama needs to step up and federize this mess already...
Posted by: alan brickman | Feb 27, 2009 7:08:24 PM
OK, I hate to say this kind of thing again, but... that was it for the activists? Looks like about 20-25 people. In a state of 2 million?
We have 1/3 their population and we recently had some 300 people at the Statehouse. What's up with that? Do we think there are really that many more gay people in Vermont?
Posted by: KevinVT | Feb 27, 2009 7:48:54 PM
I guess everyone who was calling for the boycott of Hawaii (even though the bill hasn't yet passed or failed) can add New Mexico to that list.
Unfortunately, there's no way Obama is going to federalize this any time soon. The cries of violating state rights would be painfully loud, and would distract from every other policy goal of the administration. Just like gays in the military and the eventual DADT did to Clinton in his first months. Every Midwestern and southern state would throw a huge fit, as would many others.
Posted by: Paul R | Feb 27, 2009 7:56:43 PM