Thursday, 4:30 PM
Governor plans to march -- against gay marriage ban
By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff
This weekend, on the eve of what could be a historic and final vote on gay marriage in Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick will become the first sitting governor in state history to march in Boston’s gay pride parade, according to organizers.
Patrick, who marched in the last two Boston pride parades as a candidate for governor, has been working to help defeat a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which the Legislature is scheduled to vote on at a constitutional convention next week. Action on the measure could be delayed if its opponents do not have the votes to defeat it.
Patrick appeared Thursday night at an event -- sponsored by MassEquality, a gay marriage advocacy group -- featuring prominent lawyers who oppose the amendment. The governor once again defended gay marriage as a matter of basic equality, but he also made a pragmatic argument in favor of defeating the gay marriage ban.
"Even if you don't agree with us about the rightness of the question, smart political people have got to appreciate ... if we don’t put this question to rest at the con-con, this is all we will do for the next two years," Patrick said. "And there is an awful lot of other business, important to you and everyone else here in the commonwealth -- about strengthening this economy and our public schools and our healthcare system -- that demands the attention of the folks on Beacon Hill."
