Thursday, 4:30 PM
New senate president vows to have vote on same sex marriage
Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
Senate President Therese Murray, who supported an effort last fall to kill a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage without a vote, said Thursday that she will use her power as the new leader of the Senate and of the Constitutional Convention to ensure that lawmakers take an up-or-down vote on the amendment.
Murray, a strong supporter of same-sex unions, said she will continue to help round up votes to defeat the marriage ban but will oppose any move to bury the proposed amendment with parliamentary tactics.
"My vote is going to be just what it was the last time, but I am not going to move to adjourn," Murray said, speaking with reporters on her way into a Senate session a day after she was elected to succeed Robert E. Travaglini as Senate leader. "I will call for a vote, and I will try to help the advocates get the votes that they need. ... I think it’s important that we vote."
Murray’s statement stands in sharp contrast to the vote she took at a Constitutional Convention in November, when she backed a recess motion designed to kill the proposal by keeping it from moving to the 2007-2008 legislative session for a final vote.
Two months later, in the waning moments of the legislative session, the amendment crossed its first hurdle when it won the support of 62 representatives and senators, 12 more than required for approval, after Travaglini, an opponent of same-sex marriage, steered the measure to a quick vote.
The Legislature’s next Constitutional Convention is expected to determine the fate of the petition to end same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, which became the only state in the nation to sanction gay marriages after a Supreme Judicial Court decision in 2003. The petition would die if no vote is taken on the proposal in this legislative session.
