REPORT FROM MASS. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: Slate.com

After two days of sniping, griping, and groping around in the Massachusetts legislature, only two things were clear: Legislators in the nation's most liberal state don't like gay marriage, and they can't agree on an alternative.

The state's two-day constitutional convention recessed Thursday with no consensus on whether to ban gay marriage, create civil unions, or let stand a state supreme court ruling allowing same-sex marriage. The stalemate ironically leaves same-sex marriage as the law in Massachusetts--at least for now--to the consternation of most of its legislators. ...

The Massachusetts amendment fell apart over the proposed inclusion of civil unions. Nineteen hours of debate produced a walkout, a filibuster, a couple of dirty tricks, and a deeply fractured legislature. The members came two votes short of banning gay marriage, then six votes short of establishing civil unions, and then degenerated into a morass of grandstanding, grimacing, and gavel-pounding. ...

A small but vocal minority of the legislature wants no constitutional amendment at all, keeping Massachusetts as the only state to endorse same-sex marriage. The majority wants a ban on gay marriage but is divided on whether to create civil unions. Senate President Robert E. Travaglini and his followers say yes to such unions. Finneran and his troops say maybe later (legislator-ese for "when pigs fly").

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posted by Eve at 4:23 PM | link

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