You are here: Home » Featured » Minnesotans Opposed To Anti-Marriage Amendment, Bigots Continue To March Forward

Minnesotans Opposed To Anti-Marriage Amendment, Bigots Continue To March Forward

05/13/11-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Republicans in Minnesota keep saying how they have the backing of the people during their little diversionary tactic of going after lesbians and gays over marriage. The reality is that they do not have the backing of the people as a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll shows. In total, fifty-five percent of Minnesotans oppose the amendment and only thirty-nine favor it. What the poll also found is that opposition to the amendment cut across all age groups, though the margin of those opposed grew smaller as the population grew older. Minnesotans 18-34 oppose the ban by 60% of the polled population, but only 51% of those 65 and older do.

The push for the amendment comes despite the fact that the economy in Minnesota is rocky and there is a need to get a budget done. Minnesota legislators have been largely ignoring this by engaging in this push for the amendment. It is also likely that they hope to get anti-gay Christians to come out and vote for them next year.

Opposition to the bill came largely from Democrats and Independents, but Republicans supported it. This is not surprising either since Republicans are, by and large, now made up at their core of those who are opposed to equality, and who continue to claim erroneously that marriage has been shown to work best throughout all of history when it is between a man and a woman.

The Star Tribune noted:

Doug Regester, who calls himself a conservative who votes for Republicans, is among those who support an election to place the ban in the state Constitution. “If there is a way to give the people the say rather than just having a few politicians decide, I’m all for that,” said Regester, a 53-year-old personal trainer from Minneapolis. He said limiting marriage to a union between one man and one woman has been shown “over the centuries” to be “the most beneficial to society.”

State Senator David Hann, a Republican, voted for the amendment and stated “To me, this is not an issue that is driven by polls. The choice is you either let the court decide … or you bring it to a vote of the people and you let the people decide.”

Which is, of course, so nice of him to feel since the majority of Americans at each juncture got to vote first on the rights of minority religions in this country to have a voice in its creation. I’m sure that everyone can remember the 1787 campaign in which Anglicans and Protestants got to vote to allow Catholics the right to marry, hold public office, and vote. Undoubtably, they also remember the national vote on allowing interracial couples to marry and how the winning slogan was “God ordained that the races shall be separate”. Of course, they also remember the famous campaign by women to get the right to vote in which the refused to have sex with their husbands if they weren’t granted the right to participate in the American political process.

Yes, those were such memorable campaigns because they never happened. Indeed, they never happened. No one in the history of this country has ever had the right to vote on the rights of the minority.