The 50 Spot: Utah's (Republican, Mormon) Governor Backs Civil Unions

by Michael Jones · 2009-02-10 05:58:00 UTC
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John HunstmanI love being surprised by news.  And it doesn't get more surprising than reading that Utah's Republican, Mormon, potential GOP Presidential candidate in 2012 Gov. John Huntsman Jr. supports civil unions for same-sex couples.  More below in the 50 Spot.

Utah:  Governor John Huntsman Jr. has publicly come out in favor of civil unions for same-sex couples, as well as for every agenda item in Equality Utah's "Common Ground Initiative," a platform of legislative goals that attempts to seek common ground between LGBT people wanting equal rights, and conservatives that might not be down with the whole marriage equality thing.  That Gov. Huntsman publicly threw his support behind civil unions is no small thing - according to the Salt Lake Tribune, 70 percent of Utah residents oppose civil unions.  Moreover, Gov. Huntsman was a proponent of a 2004 ballot initiative in Utah - known as Amendment 3 - that banned same-sex marriage and civil unions.  Now it looks like he's had a change of heart, at least when it comes to civil unions.  Confirmation of all of this came yesterday, when Gov. Huntsman's spokesman told the Tribune, "He supports civil unions."

Arizona: Students at Yuma High School have been fighting for three years to start a GSA (gay-straight alliance) at their school.  Yesterday, their three-year battle ended in victory.  According to the Yuma Sun, a three-way dialogue between the ACLU of Arizona, Yuma Union High School District administrators, and Michael Baughman of the Amancio Project finally led to negotiations where the club was able to form.  Baughman, in celebrating the victory, told the Sun: "People should be proud and immensely honored to have these students in their community who stand up for themselves."  We concur.

Wyoming:  Sticking with the Mountain West, word out today is that an attempted effort to place a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage before Wyoming voters has been defeated in the Wyoming House of Representatives.  The bill, House Resolution 17 (the "Defense of Marriage" bill) died in the house, suffering a 35-25 vote.  One Republican lawmaker, Rep. Pat Childers, told the Cody (Wy) Enterprise that: "The state already defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.  But putting it into the constitution, in my opinion, violates the civil rights of gays and lesbians."  That's a damn good quote.  But he follows it up with an even better one: "Whether we believe in it or not, same sex unions are taking place in this country.  Some people are saying that by not passing this resolution, that I’m denying them the right to vote on this issue.  But if we allow this to go to a (statewide public) vote and it passes, we are denying the gay and lesbian community their civil rights.  And we can’t do that.  We have to recognize the civil rights of everyone in this country."

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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