Minnesota Freedom to Marry Week Event

OutFront Minnesota
I Do Support Love - Freedom to Marry Day Rally
Thursday, February 11th, 8:30-9:30am - Capitol Rotunda.

Make your sign and head over to the capitol to show your support for enacting freedom to marry legislation in Minnesota. Clergy and faith leaders will lead us in an inspiring rally for justice. [Link]

How Supportive Are Minnesotans of Marriage Equality?

Smart Politics
October 11, 2009
There has been some movement in public opinion regarding the freedom to marry in Minnesota as the issue has percolated on the national scene and across states during the past decade. In January 2004, for example, just 27 percent of Gopher State residents supported the legalization of marriage equality, according to a Pioneer Press / MPR poll, while in January 2008, the numbers had tightened to 41 percent in favor and 53 percent opposed. [Link]

Minnesota Clergy Gather to Support Freedom to Marry

KARE 11
October 8, 2009
OutFront Minnesota, the state's leading gay activist organization, hosted dozens of clergy who support marriage equality for gay couples to talk about why. [link]

Minneapolis to host Lutheran debate on gay clergy and marriage equality

The Minnesota Independent
July 6, 2009
After years of study and debate, thousands of leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will gather in Minneapolis this August for a vote on whether to become more welcoming to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Lutherans. LGBT Lutherans are anxiously awaiting the outcome, which could pave the way for gay and lesbian pastors, bring same-sex commitment ceremonies to local congregations and impact policy in a state with a large number of Lutheran elected officials. [Link]

Voice for Equality: Al Franken

Alan Franken is an American entertainer-turned-politician. In 2008, Franken ran as the Democratice-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for U.S. Senate from Minnesota. On June 30, 2009, the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld Franken's victory, and stated that he was entitled to be certified as the election winner. Hours later, former Republican Senator, Norm Coleman, conceded the race.

Franken has worked as a comedian, writer and liberal political commentator. He has also been a longtime champion for gay rights. In fact, in 2005 a blogger, wrote about a speech Franken delivered: “Franken first talked about gay marriage. He portrayed it as a basic issue of civil rights, invoking miscengenation.”

Freedom to Marry salutes Al Franken - a Voice for Equality as far back as 2005 - and now one of 14 marriage equality supporters in the U.S. Senate.

**Make your NOMINATION for a Voice for Equality today!

Duluth to Offer Domestic Partner Certificates

Duluth News Tribune
May 12, 2009
The city of Duluth will begin offering domestic partnership certificates after a 5-to-3 City Council vote Monday night. Councilor Jeff Anderson proposed that the city offer the certificates, saying it would be easier for couples to get benefits from employers that provide them to domestic partners. He noted that the city of Minneapolis has offered a similar program for several years. [link]

Marriage equality in Iowa is stirring Minnesota

Minneapolis Star Tribune
April 25, 2009
States from Maine to California look to be the next battlegrounds in a legal fight that is leapfrogging the country. In Minnesota, the two sides are stalemated for now, but the debate promises to be part of each legislative session for years to come. [Link]

Capitol rally: putting marriage into economic terms

MinnPost
February 11, 2009
Everywhere you go at the state Capitol these days the talk is of the budget, the economic crisis and then the budget again. So when Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, speaks at a "Freedom to Marry Day Rally" Thursday afternoon, he's going to put the subject of same-sex marriage into economic terms.  [Link]

Same-Sex Couples Set to Sue Minnesota over Marriage Rights

The Minnesota Independent
January 14, 2009
An interview with Doug Benson, founder of a group called Marry Me Minnesota, which is helping organize a lawsuit to be filed by as many as 10 gay couples against the state of Minnesota for denying them the freedom to marry. [Link]

Why I support marriage equality

The Twin City Daily Liberal
October 9, 2008
As a Jew married to a Lutheran, I can’t help but think: what if someone had decided to define marriage as only between two people of the same religion? Certainly, there are plenty of Jews out there who want their children to marry within the religion. For that matter, what’s to stop the state of Minnesota from passing a constitutional amendment that would dissolve my marriage? We are on a slippery slope when we vote to rescind other people’s rights. I cherish the rights and freedoms I have, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to have someone take them away from me. [Link]
Read more from non-gay allies.

Why a straight Minnesota couple will be wed in Canada

Star Tribune
May 23, 2008
A straight couple in Minnesota decided to get married in Canada because "if the institution of marriage in our home state isn't for all, it isn't for us." (Link)

The Impact of Minnesota’s Discriminatory Laws Only Is Amplified During Economic Uncertainty -unce

Lavendar Magazine
March 21, 2008
Just about every Minnesota family is feeling the uncertainty of today’s economy. Unemployment rose throughout the state late last year, and home foreclosures in the Twin Cities are at an all-time high. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Minnesota’s 12-month job growth was the third worst in the country in December. For about one out of five Minnesota households, a sluggish economy just adds to the financial uncertainty they face every day. In an economic downturn, plans for savings and financial stability take on a whole new meaning for the nearly 20 percent of Minnesota households that are led by same-sex couples. [link]

Group To Rekindle Rights for Same-Sex Couples Debate In Minnesota

WCCO
February 4, 2008
When state lawmakers open the new session next week a new group will try to rekindle the debate over whether same-sex couples should have the same rights as men and women who are married. Project 515 focuses on 515 state laws that it says discriminate against same-sex couples and families. Some affect couples in their professional lives, others in times of tragedy. [link]

In Stand For Marriage Equality, Church Cuts All Unions

WCCO
December 14, 2007
It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, you can't get legally married at Lyndale United Church of Christ. The small, liberal church in south Minneapolis was the first of several Twin Cities congregations last year to stop performing civil marriage ceremonies as long as gay marriage is illegal. These churches, and a handful of others around the country that took the same step, will still hold a religious ceremony to bless the unions of straight and gay couples -- but straight couples must go separately to a judge or justice of the peace for the marriage license. "If you feel that gay and lesbian people are loved and credited by God, then how can we continue to discriminate against our brothers and sisters?" asked Rev. Don Portwood, the reserved Nebraska native who's been lead pastor at the 120-member Lyndale United Church of Christ for 27 years. [link]

PODCAST: Minnesota Public Radio hosts marriage debate

Minnesota Public Radio
May 8, 2007
Richard Mohr, a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of a number of books on gay rights, most recently, "The Long Arc of Justice: Lesbian and Gay Marriage, Equality and Rights," squared off with Dwight Duncan, a professor at Southern New England School of Law in Massachusetts, who got his degree at the Vatican. Mohr does a great job of articulating what marriage is really about. Broadcast: Midday, 05/08/2007, 12:00 p.m [link]

OPINION: The right to marry: who is really at risk?

Minnesota Daily
February 12, 2007
Today the GLBTA community celebrates National Freedom to Marry Day. Though it is not an election year where the right to have one's love legally recognized is at risk, the goal of educating people on GLBTA issues and facilitating open-ended discourse is as important as ever. Even those in the community who do not believe marriage is an institution of which they want to be a part, the ideal of social equality in the near future fuels their drive to fight for what they feel is right. [link]

POLL: Minnesotans do not support constitutionalized marriage discrimination

Minnesota Public Radio
September 28, 2006
A majority oppose amending the Minnesota State Constitution so that gay and lesbian marriages, including those performed in other states, could never be legalized or recognized. [link]

OPINION: Love, marriage and ... lutefisk?

Winona Daily News
August 20, 2006
If you think same-sex marriages are a corruption of family values, we're a society that allows crack-heads, criminals, and Ozzy Osbourne to marry and have kids. Are a couple of antiquers from San Francisco really more of a threat to children than Britney Spears? [link]

Minnesota Democrats add gay support to platform

365Gay.com
June 12, 2006
"Minnesota's wing of the Democratic Party — the DFL — overwhelmingly voted to add a plank to the party platform opposing constitutional bans on same-sex marriage." [link]

Methodists approve gay and lesbian clergy, affirm marriage equality

WCCO
June 1, 2006
Delegates to the annual state convention of the United Methodist Church voted to urge the national church to support the freedom of gay and lesbian couples to marry and the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. [link]