Thursday, 4:30 PM
Gloucester legislator who supports gay marriage ban will miss vote
By Globe Staff
Advocates of the ban on same-sex marriage may have lost one of their supporters, Representative Anthony J. Verga, a Democrat from Gloucester, who slipped and fell in a State House hallway on Wednesday.
Verga’s wife told the Associated Press today that he will not be able to attend the Constitutional Convention today to vote on the proposed ban on same-sex marriage.
On Wednesday afternoon, Verga was carried by stretcher to an ambulance and taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. His chief of staff said Wednesday night that Verga, 72, was conscious but it was not clear whether he would be able to attend today's Constitutional Convention.
The proposal needs the votes of 50 legislators to make it on the 2008 ballot as a referendum. In January, the measure passed its first convention with 62 votes.
