BENNINGTON — Legislative leaders said Thursday that they will move quickly to pass gay marriage legislation, beginning hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 16 — the day the Legislature reconvenes following the Town Meeting break.

The announcement came at a Statehouse press conference hosted by Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, and House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, as they outlined an aggressive agenda for the remainder of the legislative session.

Shumlin, who served as Senate president in 2000, when Vermont became the first state to pass civil union legislation, said Thursday he was proud of the state at the time for taking such a momentous step. But his “pride has given way to uneasiness,” he said, as other states have since bypassed Vermont and have allowed gay marriage.

“Vermont is no longer alone, and we’re no longer leading. Here in Vermont, people’s fears in connection with the civil union law have proven unfounded,” he said. “Nobody was harmed, some families enjoy a little more security, and our state is a better place for having taken that step.”

 See Hearings to start March 16 on gay marriage

Bennington Banner -

Don’t you just love it when “Christian lawmakers” like those in Kentucky move to ban “gay adoption” and “gay foster care” but never get around to opening their own homes up to the kids who need to be adopted? Their hypocrisy is stunning.

A bill seeking to prohibit gay and lesbian couples from adopting children has won approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The measure would also bar unmarried heterosexual couples from adoption or foster care.

 See `Anti-Gay‘ Adoption Bill Advances WBKO

Bill to allow same-sex unions introduced

The next round of the perennial battle over same-sex marriage in Minnesota was officially joined on Thursday. A bill that would define marriage as a civil contract between “two persons,” rather than a man and a woman, was introduced in the state Senate, sponsored by five DFL members.

It has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but no hearings have been scheduled.

The bill would strike language from state law that specifically prohibits marriage by persons of the same sex, along with language that refuses to recognize same-sex marriages from another state or country.

Debate over the bill is likely to be fierce if the recent track record in the Legislature is any guide. Between 2004 and 2006, gay marriage opponents proposed bills to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would have decreed marriage is a union of a man and a woman only. The bills didn’t get out of the Legislature, but opponents said last year they would try again in 2009. So far, gay rights advocates are seizing the offensive this year, after trying and failing to pass a bill in 2008.

 See Bill to allow same-sex unions introduced

Minneapolis Star Tribune 

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Senate Judiciary Committee gave unanimous approval this afternoon to a bill that would ban unmarried couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents in Kentucky. See Panel backs bill to bar adoption by unmarried couples Louisville Courier-Journal

Testimony went late into the night last Thursday as supporters and opponents of gay marriage discussed a pair of bills before the Senate judiciary committee at the State House.

Bill S0136, introduced by Senator Leo Blais, R-Dist. 21, seeks to amend Rhode Island’s constitution to specify marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. Bill S0147, on the other hand, calls for the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Though several bills supporting gay marriage have been introduced in the state Senate before, proponents of the current bill believe “that there is a better chance than in the past to have fruitful dialogue,” said Susan MacNeil, director of development and communications for the advocacy group Marriage Equality of Rhode Island.

The group has been working on the issue for ten years, but after the November election and the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which eliminated the right to gay marriage in that state, there has been an outpouring of public support for gay marriage, MacNeil said.

“People want to be part of the marriage equality movement,” she said.

Many of the Ocean State’s neighbors have already taken action. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in Connecticut and Massachusetts, while Vermont, New Jersey and New Hampshire have authorized civil unions. See Gay marriage bills duel in Senate

The Brown Daily Herald -