Undecided on the gay marriage issue? You may be able to vote for and against it come November. From The Rocky Mountain News:
One side argues that the cultural foundation of society – marriage – is under attack by gay activists and their allies.
The other side contends that same-sex couples are the victims of hate and deserve equal rights under law. On Wednesday, backers of traditional marriage and supporters of domestic partnerships formally filed separate measures for the November ballot, injecting gay rights into the center of election- year politics.
The next nine months promise to bring contentious rhetoric as one camp campaigns for a constitutional amendment restricting marriage to the union of a man and a woman and the other camp pushes for a referendum that would grant gay couples in Colorado the same legal benefits and protections as those afforded to married couples.
John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington D.C., said he cannot think of another state that has had a domestic partnership measure and a marriage amendment on the same ballot.
As contradictory as they appear, both initiatives could pass, Green said. “A lot of people believe in traditional marriage but at the same time believe in legal rights for gay couples,” he said. “There certainly are people that would be comfortable with both.”
The gay rights battle has already hit other parts of the country, with 19 states passing anti-gay-marriage amendments and a handful providing some degree of domestic partner benefits and protections. Massachusetts issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The looming debate in Colorado is sure to force voters to consider sensitive moral and legal questions: What legal rights should gay couples have? What do marriage and family mean? How strong a role does religion play in this issue? And should the government be involved at all?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: MichaelBowman
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: Duke Cox
IN: Who’s Paying For These Racist Anti-Harris Sign Stunts?
BY: davebarnes
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: notaskinnycook
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: notaskinnycook
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: Colorado Pols
IN: Who’s Paying For These Racist Anti-Harris Sign Stunts?
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
The language of both measures allows both to stand if they are both passed.
In fact, if the anti-marriage amendment passes or fails will make no diffrence on the current state of affairs. All it is doing is putting language in the constitution which already exists in statute. A rather unnecessary manuver if you ask me.
Unnecessary? C’mon, there is an opportunity here to bash a few faggots at the polls and you know that is the best way to turn out good Republican base voters, Dan. Gotta get those bigots to the polls!
The maneuver is, of course, the “hot button” genius of the conservative core of the Republican party. Keep them “hot buttons” hot and every wingnut, talkinin’ in tongues, abomination spoutin’ and recitin’ (here we go with Leviticus again!) yahoo whose brain is being held hostage by “intelligent design” will just thank Je-hah-sus that their mission to the polls in November is sacred and inviolable and supportive of their expectation of a one-way ticket to the promised land; something as certain as the promise that their tithe to their fat-assed preacher’s wallet will guarantee a seat on that gilded locomotive, the rapture limited.
I really don’t give a flying you know what how people worship or what they think of queers or anybody else, for that matter. But I do wonder about the arrogance, the sublime temerity of the rightwingnuts who have the audacity to refer to themselves as the “party of Lincoln.”
Unnecessary? C’mon, there is an opportunity here to bash a few faggots at the polls and you know that is the best way to turn out good Republican base voters, Dan. Gotta get those bigots to the polls!
Too bad we have no opposition party in this country. The repukes should lose big given the vast mess they have made of everything they touch, but since the dems are so lame and chickensh**, afraid of their own shadows, 2006 will again be missed opportunites.
Go Hillary (and lose again).
Oliver: Your comments constitute what would have been the other half of my post if I’d had the time to finish it. “…dems are so lame and chickenshi**…” Indeed. We dare not depend on the Dems to recongize the golden spoon that’s been placed in their laps by the failures of Dubya and his minions. So, then, where do we go? And, no, Hillary it ain’t.
**COMMENT REMOVED**
Colorado Pols does not permit the cutting and pasting of large portions of text in the comments section. Please restrict your comments to a few paragraphs and/or provide the link to the rest of the story.
Oliver, just post the damn link to your blog instead of wasting so much space
Oliver, just post the damn link to your blog instead of wasting so much space
Last time I posted so long I got zapped, but this, of course, is a left wing rant and probably will stand.
On banning gay marriage, it appears Colorado will become known as the Taliban State. Sad.
I guess I’ll have to be quiet on this issue this time. Not sure if I can hold my own in the ring against six or seven of ya’ll tonite…….
I heard a lot of people who to;d that they are against this because otherwise they will feel no difference between them and gays. i meant that marriage was the only thing left that make them special. That’s crazy I think.