Mass. Constitutional Convention (Feb.2004)

Constitutional Convention (Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004)

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Rep. Travis continued: I thank my friend Sen. Pacheco for our discussion yesterday. He said I want to vote on the amendment, but I have problems. He said do you believe if this becomes law and families who have health plans given by their companies who are not married who are gays will have those plans taken away? I said no. He said the courts will do that when the employers bring this to court. They will say only one man and woman are protected. This is the amendment for the day. I was rude to some people yesterday. I publicly apologize. My colleagues, please let the people vote.

Sen. Havern said I hope this amendment fails. There is a lot of fear out there. People are afraid of the gay issue. After marriage there is no sex. We don’t need this amendment on the constitution. You are not going to find a kinder person than Sen. Travaglini. We are all struggling on this issue. The governor is a nice guy. He is just dead wrong. This is like a family. When you raise a family, you treat them the same. You take rights and privileges away only when they do wrong. What is it that they did that we take something away from them? My son was on the Beanpot winning team and another son passed the financial services exam. We are proud. Everyone is. You have to treat every family member the same or what kind of parent are you? That is why we are having so much trouble with the compromise. How do you compromise someone’s rights? How do you say you’re almost equal? I don’t like the visual of me twenty years from now with me and a bowl of water washing my hands. I don’t like it. I don’t want to be Pontius Pilate on this one. I don’t need to be. I am trusting the people. I trust every one of them. Kill this amendment. People don’t hate the people on the other side. The only thing we all hate is email. We trust the other side. We trust each other. My kids will say in 20 years they stayed in the chamber fighting about what? Didn’t they read the constitution? In the short term this is an arduous vote. If you love public life, where else would you want to be? This is where you want to be – where history is made. Kill this amendment. Allow people to get married and love each other. See how it works out. It will be the biggest non-event in Massachusetts.

Members applauded lightly.

KELLY SPEECH – MOTION TO ADJOURN: Rep. Kelly said Liz, this is for you. By a slim majority last night, you don’t want to amend the constitution to keep Liz and others as nine tenths of a citizen. Enshrining in the constitution a document under which she leaves the chamber and doesn’t have the privilege that other people have cannot possibly jibe with what the constitution and democracy is all about. The president and vice president got this issue correct over two years ago when the nation was united after 9/11. There was no division amongst any of us. The administration decided to afford the partners of homosexual citizens privileges, survivor benefits. Marriage is not a right, it’s a privilege. You would not say you are superior to the gentlewoman from Jamaica Plain. You would never say that to her face. As a conservative, whenever that happens we should be incredibly appalled at that. I read that we are going to compromise this out about how integrated into our society we make Liz. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Is she eight tenths of a citizen? 99.9? Anything less demeans the spirit of Massachusetts it seems to me. If you believe that the love Liz has is less than the love you have for yourself, I would suggest you are wrong. That is what this is about, the judgment of love. We have experienced tragedies with loved ones. It is beyond words. Liz would feel the same way and experience things the same as you would if you unfortunately had some tragedy come your way. [Sen. Tucker, seated near Rep. Kelly, cried as he spoke, and was comforted by Sen. Murray] We did come together yesterday to take up this matter. As I look at the results, there is a margin in this chamber that does not and will not enshrine discrimination in our constitution. Every minute we stay in session debating this and try to come up with a compromise, is time to wear somebody down, to come up with a machination of a compromise to not fully integrate citizens. And that worries me. I ask you to vote in favor of and I would like to make a motion to adjourn this constitutional convention and to walk out that door and it’s not as if we didn’t meet and convene and have roll calls. You have two that you took.

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Pictures and Photos Local News Constitutional Convention Transcripts Username Password	Constitutional Convention (Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004) «Previous Page · 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 · Next Page» Rep. Travis continued: I thank my friend Sen. Pacheco for our discussion yesterday. He said I want to vote on the amendment, but I have problems. He said do you believe if this becomes law and families who have health plans given by their companies who are not married who are gays will have those plans taken away? I said no. He said the courts will do that when the employers bring this to court. They will say only one man and woman are protected. This is the amendment for the day. I was rude to some people yesterday. I publicly apologize. My colleagues, please let the people vote. Sen. Havern said I hope this amendment fails. There is a lot of fear out there. People are afraid of the gay issue. After marriage there is no sex. We don’t need this amendment on the constitution. You are not going to find a kinder person than Sen. Travaglini. We are all struggling on this issue. The governor is a nice guy. He is just dead wrong. This is like a family. When you raise a family, you treat them the same. You take rights and privileges away only when they do wrong. What is it that they did that we take something away from them? My son was on the Beanpot winning team and another son passed the financial services exam. We are proud. Everyone is. You have to treat every family member the same or what kind of parent are you? That is why we are having so much trouble with the compromise. How do you compromise someone’s rights? How do you say you’re almost equal? I don’t like the visual of me twenty years from now with me and a bowl of water washing my hands. I don’t like it. I don’t want to be Pontius Pilate on this one. I don’t need to be. I am trusting the people. I trust every one of them. Kill this amendment. People don’t hate the people on the other side. The only thing we all hate is email. We trust the other side. We trust each other. My kids will say in 20 years they stayed in the chamber fighting about what? Didn’t they read the constitution? In the short term this is an arduous vote. If you love public life, where else would you want to be? This is where you want to be – where history is made. Kill this amendment. Allow people to get married and love each other. See how it works out. It will be the biggest non-event in Massachusetts. Members applauded lightly. KELLY SPEECH – MOTION TO ADJOURN: Rep. Kelly said Liz, this is for you. By a slim majority last night, you don’t want to amend the constitution to keep Liz and others as nine tenths of a citizen. Enshrining in the constitution a document under which she leaves the chamber and doesn’t have the privilege that other people have cannot possibly jibe with what the constitution and democracy is all about. The president and vice president got this issue correct over two years ago when the nation was united after 9/11. There was no division amongst any of us. The administration decided to afford the partners of homosexual citizens privileges, survivor benefits. Marriage is not a right, it’s a privilege. You would not say you are superior to the gentlewoman from Jamaica Plain. You would never say that to her face. As a conservative, whenever that happens we should be incredibly appalled at that. I read that we are going to compromise this out about how integrated into our society we make Liz. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Is she eight tenths of a citizen? 99.9? Anything less demeans the spirit of Massachusetts it seems to me. If you believe that the love Liz has is less than the love you have for yourself, I would suggest you are wrong. That is what this is about, the judgment of love. We have experienced tragedies with loved ones. It is beyond words. Liz would feel the same way and experience things the same as you would if you unfortunately had some tragedy come your way. [Sen. Tucker, seated near Rep. Kelly, cried as he spoke, and was comforted by Sen. Murray] We did come together yesterday to take up this matter. As I look at the results, there is a margin in this chamber that does not and will not enshrine discrimination in our constitution. Every minute we stay in session debating this and try to come up with a compromise, is time to wear somebody down, to come up with a machination of a compromise to not fully integrate citizens. And that worries me. I ask you to vote in favor of and I would like to make a motion to adjourn this constitutional convention and to walk out that door and it’s not as if we didn’t meet and convene and have roll calls. You have two that you took. «Previous Page · 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 · Next Page»