As predicted, the Arizona Senate voted 16 to 4 late Friday in favor of putting a proposed statewide gay-marriage ban to the ballot in John McCain's home state this November. Senate President Tim Bee cast the deciding vote even though he “chastised groups lobbying for the issue for threats and coercive tactics.”
Same-sex marriage is already illegal in the state. The measure is intended to codify the one-man/one-woman law into the state constitution in order to protect the institution from activist judges. You know, like the conservative ones who made same-sex marriage legal in California.
Speaking of Cali, according to the Boston Globe, by the time Californians vote on their November ballot initiative aiming to outlaw gay marriage, opponents and proponents of the measure will have gathered up to $15 million.
“In many people's minds, it is the civil rights issue of the day, if not the decade,” says Steve Smith, who is working to kill the initiative and help keep same-sex marriage legal in the state.
It's incredible that people will give so freely to try to keep others from marrying, but many of the same people would balk at contributing toward free healthcare, improving their local schools, pay raises for soldiers…