MA Passes Bill To Repeal Residency Requirement For Marriage

More good news! There will soon be two states in the United States where LGBT Americans (who live in states that have not passed Super-DOMAs) can travel to and get married.

The Massachusetts State House has just passed a bill by a vote of 118-35 that would repeal a 1913 law that restricted issuing Massachusetts marriage licences to couples whose marriage would be recognized in the state in which they resided. This was initially passed to reduce the number of interracial marriages and was enforced by former Massachusetts Governor (and possible Republican Vice Presidential candidate) Mitt Romney when the state opened up its marriages to same-sex couples on May 17, 2004.

Current Governor Deval Patrick (who has an openly lesbian teenaged daughter and has worked tirelessly to protect marriage equality in the state) has announced that he will happily sign the repeal measure into law.

Rea Carey, newly named Executive Director of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released a statement applauding the move:

“Massachusetts lawmakers wisely dismantled the barrier to same-sex couples from other states who wish to marry in the Commonwealth. We look forward to the signature of Governor Patrick on this legislation. The 1913 law, a shameful vestige from another wrong-headed time of denying marriage to interracial couples, became Gov. Mitt Romney’s archaic tool in his unsuccessful bid to deny the freedom to marry to same-sex couples. Not only does today’s House vote repudiate Romney’s efforts to block our marriages in Massachusetts, it also invites couples from around the United States to experience the joy and happiness of celebrating their lives by becoming married in the Bay State.

“We applaud MassEquality, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, and the many others who worked so long and hard to achieve and protect marriage equality in Massachusetts.”

The Veepstakes Heat Up: McCain-Romney and Obama-Kaine

former VA Gov. Tom Kaine and Obama
McCain and former MA Gov Mitt Romney

There are exactly 26 days until the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 25-28. So, sometime in the next four weeks the identity of the vice-presidential candidates on both national tickets will most likely become known. The Beijing Olympics are from August 8 to 24. Barack Obama has already made a $5 million advertising buy to promote his presidential campaign on NBC's Olympic coverage.

The Veepstakes (the search for a Vice Presidential candidate) has reached a fever pitch.

On the Republican side most of the discusion is about a McCain-Romney ticket.

On the Democratic side most of the discussion is about an Obama-Kaine, Obama-Clinton, Obama-Biden or Obama-Sebelius ticket.

MadProfessah had been mildly supportive of Virginia Tim Kaine being on the ticket but that is before I read these posts from noted progressive bloggers Rod McCollum, Melissa McEwan and Matt Stoller:

Rod2.0:
Choosing the first term Virginia governor for the number two slot appears to be the conventional wisdom, albeit a bland and uninspiring choice. The Dixiecrat endorsed Obama early in the primary and is anti-choice, pro-death penalty and supported the Iraq War—the perfect resume for the "post-partisan" Republican lite politics of the new "Democratic" Party.The icing on the cake is Kaine's woeful record on gay rights—against gay adoption, partner benefits, discrimination legislation, and ,of course, against same-sex marriage and supported the amendment that now bans gay marriage in the Commonwealth. The Virginia governor also has the distinction of running one of the more creative gay-baiting campaigns in recent history, branding his anti-gay Republican opponent "having a gay sounding voice." Kaine is hardly presidential timber—more like pressed plywood.

Melissa McEwan:
Suffice it to say I am as decidedly unthrilled as I am (unfortunately) totally unsurprised that the Obama campaign is even considering putting a gay-baiting DINO war hawk whose personal "views on abortion are roughly in line with those of George W. Bush" on the ticket.

Matt Stoller:
Kaine is a very bad choice for VP. He's done nothing as Governor except turn a functional state government into a partisan cesspool of giveaways to the rich and anger everyone in the process. And on national positions, the only thing he brings to the table is that he can play the Lieberman as VP role again. And sequels usually suck, especially if the original was bad.
You can read more from those who know him best and even helped get him elected at RK, the blog that no longer bears his name out of disgust for what he has done as Governor.

If this is a trial balloon then it is fair to descibe the progressive blogosphere unimpressed. Next!

MA Poised To Open Marriage To Out-Of-State Gay Couples

Joe.My.God has the goods on a story about legislative action that would repeal a Massachusetts law that bans people from marrying in that state if that marriage would not be accepted in the state in which they live. The 1913 law was initially passed to prevent interracial couples from marrying in Massachusetts and going back to other states which prohibited the practice.

The law was largely unnoticed until then-Governor Mitt Romney publicized its existence following the legalization of same-sex marriage on May 17, 2004.

Current Governor Deval Patrick (whose lesbian daughter Katherine recently came out publicly and was warmly embraced by her family) has said that he will gladly sign the repeal legislation when it reaches his desk.

Super Tuesday Results: Obama and Clinton Battle On

Joe.My.God has this great graphic (that I snagged and reproduced here) showing the current delgate counts of the two leading Democratic presidential copntenders. Although Barack Obama won more states (13 to 8) than Hillary Clinton, Clinton won the more populous states like California, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Pam over at The Blend has a slightly different tally (825 to 732).

By states, the Senator from Illinois won Alaska, Alabama, Connecticutt, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah while the Senator from New York won Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

In the big enchilada of California, Clinton crushed Obama 52 to 42% (so now we know that Zogby's polls are trash while SUSA and the Field poll are more accurate).

As Joe.My.God points out, according to exit polls (1879 total respondents) 4% of the electorate in California was gay or lesbian and they went for Hillary 60 per cent to 25 per cent.

John McCain won the most states and the most states and the most delegates, ahead of both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, and now seems poised to become the Republican presidential nominee.

On the statewide intiatives, they all went the way that Mad Professah endorsed yesterday, except for Proposition 93, which apparently has lost 53.6 to 47.4%. This means that the two most important satate legislative leaders, State Senate Pro-Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez will be unable to run for re-election in November.

Polls Show Close Race (on Both Sides)

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire is reporting that there is a Strategic Vision poll (+/- 4.5% margin of error, Dec. 26-27, 2007) which shows a completely deadlocked race in Iowa:

For Democrats, it's Obama at 30%, Clinton at 29% and Edwards at 28%.

For Republicans, it's Huckabee at 29%, Romney at 27%, Thompson at 15%; and McCain at 14%.

In addition, the Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll also shows a statistical dead heat in Iowa on the Democratic side (Clinton 31%, Edwards 25%, Obama 22%) but on the Republican side Huckabee leads with 36%, Romney has 28%, Thompson 10%.