LGBT News Indiana gay marriage ban one step closer

2 steps forward, one step back. I'm sure that we'll see the day where these amendments are null and void. That could be in a few years, or a long way in the future though.

 

Ugh, Republicans never give up.

Indiana is one state where the anti-gay side could probably still win a statewide ballot measure. Even though I know nationwide marriage equality is an inevitability... I still hate the idea of the hatemongers getting to disrupt the overall forward-moving narrative and claim a 'victory' to fundraise off of.

Though I guess I should be optimistic that in 2014, even Indiana could vote our way. Indiana is a Republican state, but it has a moderate streak, hence why they eagerly re-elected the relatively moderate Republican Richard Lugar to the Senate for decades, but when the Tea Party GOP primary voters dumped Lugar for a right-wing nutjob like Richard Mourdock, the state elected a Democrat to the Senate in 2012. Indiana even narrowly voted for Barack Obama in 2008, one of the most shocking election results ever.

 

I live in Indiana and I wish that I could marry whomever I fall in love with here. But if the ban is supported (which it likely will be, considering this is a red state), then there will be no hope. I'm just upset by the whole debacle.

 

Not that Kentucky's in any better shape but this makes me want to stand on my side of the Ohio River and throw things at them.

 

I was in state senator Brent Steele law office Friday, and could not get the nerve to tell him not to support HJR-3. He was 2 feet away from me having a conversation with my grandfather. He will probably vote for it though, because he fought unsuccessfully to keep the ten commandments at the courthouse once.

 

Jeez, Indiana! Get with the times if nothing else!

But in all seriousness, you really gotta wonder where the logic is in banning same-sex marriage. Even on moral grounds, there are heaps of things that people consider morally wrong that are legal. Booze, tobacco, coffee, meat, killing unborn babies, spanking your children, hunting. More to the point, aren't republicans supposed to want the government to stay out of our business?

 

No, Republicans want the government to stay out of their business while they exercise the right to interfere in everyone else's.

 

anyone else watching the live webcast of the chamber?

 

Had to work my second job tonight, but I followed along via Facebook.

Basically the second sentence was stripped from the proposed amendment. It now bans gay marriage, but does not ban the possibility of civil unions etc. It is all but assured that it will pass the full house tomorrow now that the second sentence has been dropped. It will then go to the senate where the second sentence could be reinstated. Highly unlikely as they have pledged to take up the bill as written from the house.

The change in the wording effectively resets the amendment process if both chambers pass it. They would have to reintroduce the proposed amendment and pass it in the 2015 or 2016 general assembly in order for the referendum for the amendment to be put on the 2016 ballot. Though the governor is extremely conservative, he doesn't want a divisive social issue on the ballot when he is up for reelection in 2016. (He didn't even get 50% of the vote the first time around.)

Some Republicans are still going to try to get it on the ballot for 2014 since they only "deleted" a sentence instead of adding anything. Their argument will be that it is the same amendment that was previously passed. Prior to the start of this session, they were told the chance of that plan holding up in the state courts is slim to none by their own legal experts.

The state is already evenly divided on whether gay marriage should be legal. It is only going to lean further towards acceptance in the next two years. We will also hopefully have a Supreme Court ruling by that point. I don't want to count my chickens before they are hatched, but it is unlikely the ban could make it into the constitution at this point according to most legal experts.

 

It's 2014. Indiana is a fucking embarassament to this country. I swear in 50 years when the ignorant bigots die off, they're going to look fucking stupid.