The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday
approved a resolution opposing an amendment to the Minnesota
Constitution that would ban gay marriage, the Star
Tribune reported.
Voters will decide on the issue during
the November general election.
The resolution easily cleared the
chamber with all six present members voting for it. A seventh
member, Don Bostrom, was absent and did not vote on the resolution.
“It's not my issue,” Bostrom told
the paper.
The resolution makes note of St. Paul's
history of supporting gay rights.
St. Paul “has long recognized the
importance of equality for all citizens and has been a leader in
supporting human rights, including the adoption in 1990 of an
ordinance making it illegal to discriminate based on sexual
orientation,” the five-paragraph resolution reads in part.
In 2009, the city approved a domestic
partnership registry.
A November statewide poll by St. Cloud
State University found more Minnesotans oppose than support the
amendment. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they do not
support amending the state's constitution to define marriage as a
heterosexual union, while 44 percent said they favored the amendment.
Nine percent refused to answer.