Responding to passage of a gay marriage
bill in the Minnesota Senate, the coalition of groups formed to
campaign against its legalization described Monday as a “sad day”
for Minnesota.
The Senate followed the House in
approving the legislation after a roughly 4-hour debate.
Democratic Governor Mark Dayton is
scheduled to sign the bill into law during a ceremony at 5PM Tuesday
on the front steps of the Capitol.
Legislative approval comes roughly two
years after lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment which
sought to ban gay nuptials and six months after voters rejected it.
“Today is an historic and sad day for
the state of Minnesota,” Minnesota
for Marriage said in a statement. “As a result of years of
campaigning by gay 'marriage' activists awaiting a time when DFL
leadership in the Minnesota legislature and governorship would be
ready to champion their cause (contrary to the will of Minnesotans),
the Minnesota Senate joined the Minnesota House of Representatives in
passing the same-sex 'marriage' bill. This bill not only upends our
most foundational institution of marriage, redefining it as
genderless and declaring mothers and fathers as 'neutral' in
Minnesota – it also fails to protect the most basic religious
liberty rights of those who believe based on their faith that
marriage can only be the union of one man and one woman.”
“Now we are being told that
redefining marriage poses no threat to religious liberty – that
'everything will be ok' – and again, we argue that this is false.
Over one million Minnesotans will be forced to either affirm what
they believe to be false or subject themselves to prosecution and
insult as 'bigots' and 'criminals' under our law with the passage of
this bill.”
Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), which campaigned heavily in favor of
last year's referendum, said separately that the decision would end
the careers of many lawmakers.
(Related: NOM's
Brian Brown predicts defeat for Minnesota lawmakers who backed gay
marriage.)