state legislature

Christie Keeps His Promise To Veto Gay Marriage Bill

Submitted by ONE Community on February 17, 2012 - 7:59pm
Christie Keeps His Promise To Veto Gay Marriage Bill

From The New York Times:

Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a newly passed bill on Friday that would legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey, setting a difficult path for advocates who vowed to fight “with every last breath” to override him.

The governor’s veto was conditional, asking the State Legislature to amend the bill, so that rather than legalizing same-sex marriages, it would establish an overseer to handle complaints that the state’s five-year-old civil union law did not provide gay and lesbian couples the same protections that marriage would.

Mr. Christie also affirmed his call for the Legislature to put a referendum on same-sex marriage on the ballot in November. Read more »

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Susan Allen Becomes First American Indian Lesbian Elected to a State Legislature

Submitted by ONE Community on January 14, 2012 - 7:08pm
Susan Allen Becomes First American Indian Lesbian Elected to a State Legislature

From Indian Country:

Minnesota Democrat Susan Allen made history January 10 as the first Native American Lesbian to be elected to a U.S. State legislature. During a special general election to the Minnesota State House, Allen defeated her opponent Nathan Blumenshine with 56 percent of the vote to fill the vacated seat of now Senator Jeff Hayden.

The morning after the election, Allen said she wanted to dive into legislative work and her early priorities were to bring jobs and job training to her district and work on a fair tax system for Minnesota. As an openly gay legislator, Allen also said she would begin her fight against the discriminatory constitutional marriage amendment. Read more »

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