New England Emerging As Holdout In March To Ban Gay Marriages [View All]

[ruggerson]

New England. The proud, fighting spirit of freedom still lives there. I'm damn proud to be a Yankee.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050406/APN/504061050

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By ROBERT TANNER
AP National Writer

It seems a can't-lose proposition: Ask voters to ban same-sex marriages and they consistently endorse the idea, from the South to the West.

Kansas on Tuesday became the latest and 18th state to pass a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage. With conservatives pushing to define marriage as between a man and woman throughout the country, similar proposals are on the ballot in three other states next year and more than a dozen are considering them.

New England has been the major holdout; there, legislators and judges have strengthened rights for gays and lesbians.

Kansas voted by a more than 2-to-1 margin Tuesday to ban gay marriages and civil unions, and voters also ousted the lone gay city council member in Topeka, Tiffany Muller, who had defeated an emphatically anti-gay opponent in the primary. But Connecticut legislators seemed headed in the other direction Wednesday, scheduling a vote to legalize civil unions. If the bill becomes law, Connecticut would be the only state to do so without a court order demanding lawmakers act.

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