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  Mass. gay marriage advocates look for national help
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ContributorThe Sunset Provision 
Last EditedThe Sunset Provision  May 03, 2007 10:55pm
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CategoryNews
MediaNewspaper - Boston Globe
News DateFriday, May 4, 2007 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionProponents of gay marriage and state Democratic leaders are lobbying the national party in an effort to get a handful of state legislators to change position and vote to kill a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Two staff members from MassEquality, the group leading the fight to protect same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, met last week in Washington with officials of the Democratic National Committee armed with a list of about two dozen Democratic state lawmakers identified as potential converts to their effort to kill the amendment.

"If this question makes it to the ballot, it would draw tremendous resources into a political fight in Massachusetts that otherwise would be spent on national campaigns," Marc Solomon, the campaign director for MassEquality who attended the meeting, told The Boston Globe. "Democratic donors would redirect their money here for a campaign that would be a higher priority for them."

Solomon would not reveal which lawmakers have been targeted.

State Democratic Party chairman John Walsh said he will take up the issue with DNC chairman Howard Dean at a conclave next week.

"Certainly he would be a credible spokesman for the impact on the national stage," he said.

DNC spokesman Luis Miranda said the visit from the gay rights activists was "a positive and productive informational meeting."

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a group trying to overturn the court decision that led to the nation's first same-sex marriages in 2004, said the new strategy is desperate.

"This is indicative of how little success our opponents are having on a state and local level, that they have to go outside Massachusetts and apply national political pressure on legislators here to change their votes," he said.

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