Moving Minnesota on Gay Marriage

It's the land of 10,000 lakes. Could it also be the land of 10,000 same-sex couples? (Or more?)

Minnesota legislators debated same-sex marriage yesterday. And in what can only be described as a good sign of the times, the discussion didn't focus around banning gay marriage. It focused on legalizing it.

There are three bills percolating around the Minnesota State House that would address marriage equality. And while no one really thinks that same-sex marriage will become law this year -- certainly not with Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a frontrunner for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination, heading the state -- there's a massive sense of power in sharing the stories of marriage equality activists and creating the eventual legislative momentum to recognize same-sex marriage in the state.

One lesbian mom, Deborah Talen, told a Minnesota House committee that marriage equality would legitimate her family in the eyes of the state. And that's important, because her family is no different than the straight family across the road.

"With tippy cups and car seats and visits to pediatricians and bedtime stories. For people who are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with gay and lesbian families, what we have found over our many years of being parents, that folks hang out with us and find that we're pretty much like everybody else that they know," Talen said.

Pretty heartfelt, plain-spoken and true. What did the other side have to offer?

How about a nice big dose of, “Rosa Parks did not move to the front of the bus to support sodomy.” Ugh. Why do anti-gay marriage proponents need to be so vile?

That Rosa Parks doozy of a comment was made by Bard Davis White, a member of Minnesota's Tea Party fringe movement and a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the state's 5th district. (In a real sense of wonderful irony, the current incumbent in the Fifth District is Rep. Keith Ellison, a gay marriage loving Muslim. Ah, how that must make Barb Davis White and her Tea Party crew have rage strokes.)

(UPDATE: Holy Mother. If you want to hear Barb Davis White in the flesh, check out the video below. I haven't heard someone talk so much about sex since Pastor Martin Ssempa started showing gay porn in Church. Here's your Tea Party activism live and in the flesh. H/T to Nelson G.)

But despite White's nastiness, or the Catholic Church's consistent cry of "but men and women are naturally designed to fit into each other's body parts" argument, the testimony yesterday got the pot stirring about the real advantages of marriage equality, and how important it is to gay and lesbian couples.

The Minnesota Daily perhaps put it best in an editorial this week. "Minnesota, despite a history of progressive values, warmth and fairness, has fallen behind in the march toward equality," the paper wrote.

But it's not too late to turn the bus around. On a personal note, I lived in Minnesota in 2002 as a member of Sen. Paul Wellstone's re-election campaign. My time there was short, but in just a few short months it became the best place I ever lived. Why? Because no matter where I went, from the bluest parts of St. Paul or Minneapolis to the reddest parts of Michele Bachmann's current district, I always felt like my neighbors had my back, even if they didn't agree with me.

Part of being your sister's or brother's or neighbor's keeper is making sure that they have access to the full plate of civil rights in this country. That's what same-sex marriage does. And that's why, eventually, it's an argument that's going to win in Minnesota.

Photo credit: Outfront Minnesota