Thursday, 4:30 PM
Patrick urges Legislature to defeat gay marriage ban
(Jonathan Wiggs/ Globe Staff)
Governor-elect Deval Patrick told reporters today that the Legislature should do whatever they can to kill a proposed ban on gay marriage.
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
Governor-elect Deval Patrick issued a statement today urging lawmakers to defeat a proposed ban on gay marriage, saying that legislators should end the debate this afternoon by any means necessary when they meet for a Constitutional Convention.
Patrick asked lawmakers to kill the initiative if it comes to the floor, or to move to adjourn without considering the ban despite a recent decision in which the Supreme Judicial Court reminded legislators that they had a constitutional duty to allow the measure to come to a vote.
"I favor ending this petition initiative promptly," Patrick said in the statement. "If adjournment can accomplish that, so be it. If the Constitutional Convention chooses to vote on the merits, I want to be utterly clear that I believe a vote to advance this question to the 2008 ballot is irresponsible and wrong."
The Democrat, who takes office in two days, has largely stayed out of the roiling debate over the proposed gay marriage ban since his sweeping victory in November.
The full Legislature is scheduled to meet this afternoon for a Constitutional Convention to consider the initiative, which needs the support of 50 lawmakers in two consecutive sessions.
Backers of the proposed constitutional amendment, who collected more than 123,000 certified signatures to get the measure on the ballot, blasted Patrick's stance.
"The same court which gave Massachusetts same-sex marriage also requires a vote on citizen petitions; I respectfully state that Mr. Patrick is dangerously misguided in calling on the legislature to violate the constitution for any matter of 'conscience'," said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, in a statement. "This is not a question of conscience, it is a question of abiding by the clear directive of the constitution."
In a debate last June, Patrick said that he wished there weren't going to be a vote on same-sex marriage and likened the issue to a fight 40 years ago over interracial marriage. The US Supreme Court stepped in and struck down prohibitions in many states against blacks and whites marrying, he said, even though Congress and the public probably would not have done the same.
"There was a constitutional decision made," Patrick said of the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision allowing same-sex marriage. "I think it was the right decision. Let's move on."
Governor Mitt Romney, who leaves office on Jan. 4, spearheaded a lawsuit charging that legislators subverted the state constitution Nov. 9 when they met and took no action on the voter-initiative petition. The Legislature voted, 109 to 87, to recess the Constitutional Convention before deciding whether to put the amendment on the 2008 ballot.
Romney, who is widely expected to run for president as a social conservative, was handed a symbolic victory last week by the Supreme Judicial Court. The justices ruled that while the court lacked the authority to order the Legislature to vote on the ballot initiative, they scolding lawmakers for shirking "their lawful obligations" by not voting.
Today is the last day of the legislative session. If lawmakers do not vote on the measure, the effort to ban gay marriage will be killed.
