Massachusetts Senate Approves Gay Marriage Rights for All U.S. Citizens
- added July 16, 2008
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"The state Senate voted swiftly and unanimously yesterday to strike down a 95-year-old law that blocks gay and lesbian couples from most other states from being married in Massachusetts, drawing condemnation from Catholic Church leaders but delivering a victory for advocates who have fought for the repeal and who say that same-sex marriage has become an accepted part of the state's culture."
In a unanimous decision, the State Senate would legalize the practice of out-of-state, homosexual couples to join in the right to be married, already guaranteed to in-state couples. Additionally, it would recognize marriage documents obtained from other states which support similar rights for all couples -- California, for example.
If successful in the House, the decision would pave the way for an influx of gay couples into the state, likely bringing in over $111 million in extra revenue, as well as expanding the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of straight couples to marry, to all couples regardless of gender or sexual identity.
Most excitingly, "There were no chanting protesters outside, and not a voice on the Senate floor was raised against the repeal."
" 'People have become resigned to the fact that all the chaos that was predicted in 2004 - the sky was going to fall, it would be catastrophic - it never happened. And so it has become, as we expected it would, as much a part of the reality of life in Massachusetts as anything else,' Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a Roxbury Democrat who has championed the repeal bill, said of yesterday's vote."
In a unanimous decision, the State Senate would legalize the practice of out-of-state, homosexual couples to join in the right to be married, already guaranteed to in-state couples. Additionally, it would recognize marriage documents obtained from other states which support similar rights for all couples -- California, for example.
If successful in the House, the decision would pave the way for an influx of gay couples into the state, likely bringing in over $111 million in extra revenue, as well as expanding the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of straight couples to marry, to all couples regardless of gender or sexual identity.
Most excitingly, "There were no chanting protesters outside, and not a voice on the Senate floor was raised against the repeal."
" 'People have become resigned to the fact that all the chaos that was predicted in 2004 - the sky was going to fall, it would be catastrophic - it never happened. And so it has become, as we expected it would, as much a part of the reality of life in Massachusetts as anything else,' Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a Roxbury Democrat who has championed the repeal bill, said of yesterday's vote."
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