Geoff Mulvihill writes:
The state-to-state march to legalize gay marriage across the left-leaning Northeast has lost more momentum since a major setback three weeks ago at the ballot box in Maine.
Since then, legislatures in New York and New Jersey have failed to schedule long-expected votes on bills to recognize the unions in those states.
Mulvihill then uses a Maggie Gallagher quote to set up the rest of his story. As Mulvihill reported, the extremist right-winger said,
If they are unable to pass gay marriage in New York and New Jersey, combined with the loss in Maine, it will confirm that gay marriage is not the inevitable wave of the future.
The rest of the piece is pretty much spent, with gays on the defensive, refuting the allegation of Gallagher.
This was written as if everybody thought Maine would be a slam-dunk and we were all allegedly blindsided.
We were about 5 points down in the polls the day before Maine, so, for me, at any rate, the outcome was not surprising. What is surprising is that we have so many in America that think it's perfectly acceptable to leave minority civil rights up to a simple majority vote.
The one part of this report I actually found useful was the call for immediate action in the Garden state:
There's a sense of urgency in New Jersey. This month, voters elected Republican Chris Christie over incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine. Corzine has said he'll sign a gay marriage bill. Christie promised a veto.
As a result, activists are pushing hard to get a bill passed before Christie takes office on Jan. 19.
But since the election, key Democrats have said they don't intend to put the bill up for a vote unless they know it will pass. And so far, they say, that's not assured. On Monday, when lawmakers met for the first time since the election, the issue was in legislative limbo — not scheduled but not declared dead either.
Access the full AP story here.
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