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Michele Bachmann’s head must be exploding right now! By a vote of 75-59, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed a bill to legalize marriage equality on Wednesday afternoon. The House File 1054 heads to the Senate next week.

The bill deals with the issue of religious institutions by specifying that the legal state of marriage will be completely secular. Religious organizations and/or individuals will not be required to perform or recognize same-sex marriages. Since the benefits of marriage are mostly legal, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Wrong. Naturally, the religious community simply cannot stand the idea of gay people being happy. They used their usual arguments: don’t redefine marriage (already done many times), it will make us look like bigots (too late) and other religion-based nonsense. As I’ve written before, this country is not a theocracy. All Americans must be treated the same according to the Constitution. Period. Religious objections should have no bearing on who can legally be recognized as married. But the religious objectors were at the Minnesota state house all the same, holding up signs and praying. Rev. Steve Goold led his followers in prayer before they moved on to lobbying against equality

The House did consider an amendment that was proposed by Republican Rep. Tim Kelly which would have created a civil union category for gay couples. Hmmmm… that reminds me of something. What could it be? Oh, right: “separate but equal.” Um, no thanks. The Minnesota House agreed and defeated the amendment 111-22.

Minnesota governor Mark Dayton has promised to sign the bill when it reaches his desk. He told Minnesota Public Radio in an interview Thursday: “I hope we’re going to get to that point. The younger generation is broadly accepting of that change and we’ll get there, it’s just a question of when.”

Last November the people of Minnesota rejected a proposed amendment to the state’s Constitution that would have prohibited same-sex marriage. The people have made it clear where they stand on this issue. Hopefully Minnesota will be the 12th state to codify marriage equality. Can I have an “amen!”? http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/10/minnesota-house-passes-marriag
e-equality-bill/

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