Governors Chris Gregoire of Washington
and Martin O'Malley of Maryland disagree with New Jersey Governor
Chris Christie's call to let voters decide whether gay people should
have the right to marry.
Christie made his remarks on Tuesday as
a bill that would make New Jersey the seventh state to legalize gay
marriage cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee with an 8 to 4
party-line vote.
Christie called on lawmakers to put the
question on the ballot – saying it was best for the people to
decide – and vowed to veto the measure if it reached his desk.
“Let the people of New Jersey decide
what is right for the state,” he said.
(Related: NOM
cheers Chris Christie's decision to veto New Jersey gay marriage
bill.)
Appearing Friday on MSNBC, Gregoire and
O'Malley, both of whom are Catholic and support current efforts in
Washington and Maryland to legalize gay marriage, said they preferred
a legislative solution.
“I think the best resolution of these
sorts of things” is “that it happened legislatively,” O'Malley
told host Thomas Roberts.
“Sometimes, we have to go to court to
get that done as a country. Other times, it's a combination of
several steps – legislative, courts, the people deciding – but
ultimately, Americans resolve these issues by extending rights more
fully and more equally to all individuals.”
Gregoire said she did not want
lawmakers “to say instead of taking the tough vote, send it to
voters. They were elected to make these decisions, it's time for
them to do so.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this
page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)