明尼蘇達州通過同姓婚姻法 - 同志

還滿熱騰騰的消息，明尼蘇達州剛剛以37對30票通過眾議會，
成為美國第十二個同性婚姻合法的州（我怎麼一直把性打成姓… 昏）

雖然說上禮拜通過參議會的時候，就大部份媒體和政界人士預測應該會順利通過
不過還是讓人小小地擔心了一會兒

總是好消息一樁，不過同時，也是有很多越來越極端的流血事件ex)紐約和俄國的
這樣兩極化的反應，不知道到底是好是壞，但我覺得至少代表了一件事
支持同志的這一端聲音，已經開始站穩腳步了。

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新聞來源：
New York Times:http://goo.gl/RQ2LX
ABC News:http://goo.gl/loK5S
US News:http://goo.gl/wLq9J

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以下轉錄NY Times

Minnesota Senate Clears Way for Same-Sex Marriage

ST. PAUL – The Minnesota State Senate voted on Monday to allow gay couples
to marry, clearing the way for Minnesota to become the 12th state in the
nation to permit same-sex marriage and the first in the Midwest to do so
without a court ruling.

The vote was 37 to 30. The State House approved the measure on Thursday, and
Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, said through his office that he would sign it
into law on Tuesday.

“These families deserve the same rights and recognitions that we do,” State
Senator John Marty, a Democrat, said, as hundreds of people on both sides of
the issue gathered in the Capitol, singing, waving signs and shouting loud
enough to be heard inside the Senate chamber as the debate went on before the
vote. “It’s finally happening,” Mr. Marty said.

Senator Carla Nelson, a Republican, opposed the measure, saying it “denies
the right of a different opinion.”

“We must respect religious freedom at the same time that we advance rights,”
she said.

In a way, the vote to allow same-sex marriage shows how rapidly sentiment on
the issue has shifted in the state. For much of 2012, Minnesota debated an
amendment that would have enshrined the state’s existing ban on gay marriage
in the State Constitution, but voters in November rejected the amendment.
They also sent majorities of Democrats to both chambers of the State
Legislature, setting off an intense new push to legalize same-sex marriage.

The vote in Minnesota comes as part of a wave of victories for those
advocating same-sex marriage around the nation. In this month alone,
lawmakers in Delaware and Rhode Island made similar moves, and voters last
fall approved measures in Maryland, Maine and Washington at the ballot box.

While efforts to allow same-sex marriage have flourished in states on the
East Coast, the picture in the middle of the country has been different.
Since 2009, Iowa has been the only Midwestern state that permits gay men and
lesbians to wed, though that was decided by a state Supreme Court ruling. In
Illinois, which allows civil unions, State House members are considering a
same-sex marriage bill that has already been approved in the State Senate.

Thirty states, meanwhile, have adopted constitutional provisions limiting
marriage to a man and a woman.


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