Idaho Gay Marriage Amendment Unlikely To Pass
As many of you know, I grew up in Idaho. Last summer, I went back to Idaho for the first time in twenty years. It’s a beautiful state. It is quite conservative, but there are voices of reason in the state. And this year, Nicole LeFavour, a lesbian, was elected in the State House of Representatives.
I was also very happy that Brad Little of Emmett, who I went to high school with, will be voting against the amendment.
“I believe gay marriage is a wedge issue promoted by the far right to tear apart the Republican Party,” said Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene. “I don’t think this exercise is worth a hill of beans.”
The House is a different story. Last year, an amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman easily passed the House and is expected to do so again. [...]
“I believe we’ve got the 24 votes (in the Idaho Senate) needed to get the job done,” said Meridian Republican Gerry Sweet, who along with Nampa Republican Curt McKenzie is working with conservative groups from Idaho and around the country to make gay-marriage bans the law of the land.
But the two other members of Senate Republican leadership -- Joe Stegner of Lewiston and Brad Little of Emmett -- oppose the amendment.
Little says Idaho’s Defense of Marriage Act, the state statute banning gay marriage, already covers the matter.
The only way for gay marriage to be foisted upon Idaho, Little said, is for a state judge to say the Defense of Marriage Act violates the state constitution. Or, Little said, the U.S. Supreme Court could uphold November 2003 ruling in Massachusetts that said it was unconstitutional to bar same-sex couples from civil marriage. Then it wouldn’t matter what Idaho did, he said. (source)
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I am a leabian and I believe that the gay and lesbian population should be allowed to comit themselves legally to another person of the same sex. The gay and lesbian community just wants the same opportunities and the same legal rites as any other heterosexual relationship. Is that too hard to understand?
Bill: Brad Little was one of the two Republicans who blocked it last year - against vocal opposition. One of the major backers of the amendment last year was defeated - the other is Gerry Sweet (mentioned above), who was just removed from a Committee Chairmanship by the moderate (Republican) senate leadership, because he is so divisive. It actually is really good news.