FRAGILE COMPROMISE SEEN ON BANNING GAY MARRIAGE: From the Boston Globe

After a weekend of polling and cajoling colleagues, state Senate President Robert E. Travaglini said yesterday he had marshaled a majority of lawmakers for Thursday's constitutional convention to support a compromise amendment that would ban gay marriage but create civil unions.

Travaglini cautioned, however, that "this situation is rather fluid" and that "it would be very difficult to do a head count with any degree of accuracy," but said he believed the fragile coalition would hold together in the end. ...

The latest compromise most closely resembles a proposed constitutional amendment that the Legislature rejected 104-94 in last month's constitutional convention. That proposed amendment would ban gay marriage and create civil unions.

But the measure also would have reclassified a gay marriage into a civil union if it occurred between May 17, when the Supreme Judicial Court historic ruling legalizing gay marriage goes into effect, and November 2006, when voters are to consider the ballot initiative.

The latest compromise would ban gay marriage and create civil unions, but it would not retroactively reclassify marriages that occur after May 17. ...

House Republicans, hoping to sway as many votes as possible yesterday, disseminated a letter from several conservative legal scholars warning that the Finneran-Travaglini measure would "raise serious religious liberty issues statewide" if passed. The letter says that the amendment would mean that "churches and other religious organizations that fail to embrace civil unions. . . may be forced to retreat from their practices or else face enormous legal pressure to change their views."

"Precedent from our own history. . . suggests that religious institutions could even be at risk of losing tax-exempt status, academic accreditation, and media licenses and could face charges of violating human rights codes or hate speech laws" if they refuse to participate in civil union ceremonies for same-sex couples, the letter said.

Senate Republican leaders, by contrast, stood firm with the Travaglini-Finneran compromise yesterday.

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posted by Eve at 5:05 PM | link

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