Massachusetts Revisits, Yet Again, The Same-Sex Marriage Debate
 
The Massachusetts’ Legislature is slated to meet today in a Constitutional Convention where the contentious issue of same-sex marriage will be revisited. State legislators will vote on whether to allow the issue of same-sex marriage to be put on a referendum ballot for voters of the Commonwealth to decide whether marriage should be defined as the union of one man and one woman.
The measure was approved at last years Constitutional Convention and needs another approval from the Legislature today in order to make it on the ballot as an initiative petition. Efforts to kill the measure have been spearheaded by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi. A considerable amount of arm-twisting has ensued to get some legislators who supported the measure last year, to change their votes.
Proponents of same-sex marriage have been running numerous television ads proclaiming that “it isn’t fair to vote on someone else's civil rights.” But who says the issue is one of civil rights?
The entire issue is fraught with philosophical, moral and political inconsistencies on the part of those who advocate same-sex marriage as a “constitutional right.”
If the voters of the Commonwealth decide in favor of same-sex marriage, then many may not like the outcome, but it will surely be viewed as a legitimate exercise of the vox populi. The major issue of contention for same-sex marriage opponents is that the decision was foisted upon the electorate by a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court improperly engaging in legislating from the bench.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
By Johnny K