Franken slams antigay Minn. ballot measure

from The Advocate

U.S. senator Al Franken has slammed the Minnesota state legislature for allowing a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage to appear on the 2012 ballot, calling the move an attack on same-sex couples who already cannot marry in the state.

“Every Minnesotan deserves dignity and equal treatment under the law, and our state’s same-sex couples should have the same right to marry as anyone else — period," Franken said in a brief Monday afternoon statement to The Advocate. "This amendment would do nothing more than write discrimination into our state’s constitution and add to the barriers same-sex couples already face to the full recognition of their families. I’m hopeful that common sense and compassion will prevail and that this amendment will be defeated."

Not all members of Minnesota's congressional delegation share Franken's sentiment when it comes to putting marriage up to a vote, however. Rep. Michele Bachmann, head of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus and a potential 2012 presidential candidate, has used the issue of gay marriage — specifically the Obama administration's February announcement that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act — as a list-building and fund-raising tool (Franken is one of 24 senators who have cosponsored legislation introduced in March that would repeal the 1996 law).

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