Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison on
Saturday predicted defeat for the state's proposed gay marriage ban.
Voters in November will decide whether
to place the state's law which bans gay nuptials in the Minnesota
Constitution.
“I believe that the right to marry
someone who you please is so fundamental it should not be subject to
popular approval anymore than we should vote on whether blacks should
be allowed to sit in the front of the bus,” Ellison told Talking
Points Memo after a panel on voting rights at Netroots Nation
conference taking place in Providence, Rhode Island.
Ellison said his Minnesota campaign
staff was working to defeat the measure.
“When we call, we don't call and say,
'Please vote for Keith.' We say Keith is fighting to defeat the
voter ID and the anti-marriage amendment. Will you support these
efforts too?”
On President Barack Obama's endorsement
of gay marriage, Ellison said: “I was happy he did it. Who you
marry is your business. That's up to you.”
Gay marriage foes have yet to lose at
the ballot box. (Washington state voted to keep a domestic
partnership law which includes most of the rights of marriage in
2009.) Voters in four states will decide the issue this fall,
including Maine, Washington state and Maryland.