New Mexico Domestic Partnership bill to be voted on this week!

[marutidas]

Feb. 16th 2009
New Mexico Senate Bill 12(New Mexico Domestic Partnership Bill) held up in commity during last years session, was passed out of commity with no recommendation on President's Day and is up for vote this week. New Mexico House Bill 21 was already passed, but held up for the senate not passing the bill on their side. The good news is, every year the support for this grows and it will pass sooner or later(hopefully sonner than later).

Govener Bill Richardson, who supports SB12 and HB21, has said he will sign the bill when it reaches his desk and If the vote is a tie in the senate the Lt. Govener Diane Denish, Who already supports this bill will cast her vote to break the tie in favor of the bill.

Senators and House Repesentatives, Who Supported SB12 and HB21, where there for a press conferance to offer their words of support.

Associated Press Report Feb. 16 2009
A proposal giving same-sex couples the same legal protections and benefits as married couples cleared a difficult legislative hurdle Monday and is headed to the Senate for a vote.

The measure allows for domestic partnerships for unmarried couples, including gay couples.

The bill had stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month. The deadlock was broken when the committee voted 6-5 to send the bill to the Senate without recommendation whether it be approved or rejected.

Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, cast the deciding vote. She has been considered a likely opponent of the legislation but said she wanted all senators to be able to debate it.

She was absent from a committee meeting earlier this month when the measure bogged down on tie votes and supporters couldn't muster the votes to advance the proposal.

"This probably needs to go to the floor for a full hearing," Sanchez said in explaining her vote Monday, adding that there are "benefits and consequences of us doing this."

She noted that some courts, including in California, have legalized same-sex marriage. Voters in California last year voted to ban gay marriage, overturning a state court ruling. However, there are several pending legal challenges to the California ballot initiative.

In New Mexico, a domestic partnership measure narrowly passed the House last year but failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

This year, supporters adopted a new strategy of trying initially to get the bill through the Senate. They hope that the election of several new Democratic senators will improve the proposal's chances for approval.

Opponents contend the domestic partnership measure will in effect legally recognize gay marriage. Supporters say the legislation will provide unmarried couples, regardless of gender, with protections and legal responsibilities given to marriage couples, including rights involving insurance coverage, child support, inheritance and medical decision-making.

The New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes the measure but it's supported by Gov. Bill Richardson and groups including the American Civil Liberties Union.

Richardson acknowledged Monday that some lawmakers feel politically and morally torn about the issue.

"I feel strongly that it's a matter of human rights and civil rights," Richardson said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We should strongly support it and I'll work very hard to get it done."

Supporters rallied at the Capitol several hours before the committee voted.

"If we don't get the bill this year ... we're going to be back year after year. We're not going to go away," said Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for Equality New Mexico.

Voting to send the bill to the Senate, in addition to Sanchez, were Democrats Cisco McSorley, the committee chairman; Majority Leader Michael Sanchez of Belen, Linda Lopez and Tim Eichenberg of Albuquerque, and Peter Wirth of Santa Fe.

Voting against the bill were Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Espanola, and Republicans Clinton Harden of Clovis and William Payne, John Ryan and Sander Rue, all of Albuquerque.

[nmwolfboy]

The vote was expected to occur this past Monday or Tuesday, but was pushed to Wednesday's agenda, then to today's. Hopefully it will come up for a vote soon.

My partner received an anti-DP robo call last night which claimed that there is little support for DP in New Mexico, and that nearly all the support for it is coming from out of state. As usual, they are guilty of what they accuse us of. Most of the money & on-the-ground support against Domestic Partnerships is coming from out of state. That's how their side was able to commission & pay for a recent statewide 'push-poll'. The in-state lgbt rights groups don't have the wherewithal to pay for a statewide poll. Heck, our biggest lgbt rights org, Equality New Mexico, operates so close to their financial line it's almost scary.

My partner & i have written, called & emailed our state senator to support the bill. Let's hope it does come up for a vote today & passes. Then it heads to the House, where it's passed in previous years. The House is even more progressive than it was then, so passage in the House is expected.

[marutidas]

Senate Bill is due for a vote today 2/26/09
around 10am mountain time.
Keep your fingers crossed

[tdogg]

Any word, or are you going to make me do my own research??

[marutidas]

The vote is over, the bill has died,
the vote was 17 yeahs to 25 nays.

The good news,
there is always next session.

This bill will not go away until it is past!

:Edit:
One of the reasons that this bill failed was because the opposition was calling it Gay Marriage, and thus confusing people. This bill even had specific language in it saying,
"THIS IS NOT GAY MARRIAGE".
Many people maybe for Domestic Partnerships but will not not support Gay Marriage.
Even the Albuquerque New Channels, KOB Channel 4 and Kasa FOX 2 were calling it gay marriage. Both are very conservitive, that cater to the right

[nmwolfboy]

Here's a report from the Santa Fe New Mexican.

10 Democrats joined with all the Senate Republicans to defeat the bill. As the article notes, pressure from the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops played a significant role in the bill's defeat. The lobbyist for the Bishops' Conference referred to this as being "compassionate".

[tdogg]

We are moving away from the terms "gay marriage" and "same sex marriage", at least here in CA, as we are finding it implies "gay rights".

So, a better way to approach it is, "marriage for same sex couples". Although I doubt that would change any Republicans' minds, it has at least helped gain more support amongst the voters here.

We must keep trying, because the tide is turning and we are edging closer to equality. I wonder what could be done to help persuade the Dems that voted nay to vote aye next time?

I attended a California Senate Judiciary Committee meeting recently, to vote on Senate Resolution 7 which would place the Senate on records as having the opinion that Prop 8 was a revision and not an amendment, and therefore, the means to approve Prop 8 were not appropriate. The arguments made by the weak opposition of 2 and the 2 Republican committee members were the same old crap: it opens the door to incest, polygamy, etc.; marriage between a man & woman has been tradition since the beginning of mankind; and Prop 8 does not discriminate, every person can marry, you just have to marry someone of the opposite sex (that one coming from an idiot that is actually a Senator).

I can't understand how they can even believe themselves. And the opposing arguments were presented to weakly and were so illogical. I'm sure if you watched the New Mexico hearings, it would be the same. Eventually people will begin seeing through the weak and illogical arguments from our opposition. You would think anyway.