Today on WyoGIST: Marriage (of course)

Red letter week or so in Wyoming regarding the marriage issue, and I applaud OutQ News for finally reporting on it on Sirius 109! Granted they're a little behind, so here's the gist: Wyoming conservatives were trying to pass a bill which would have put gay marriage to a general vote in the november election. The bill would have constitutionally defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman only; while Wyoming currently does not perform same-sex marriages, wyoming law requires that marriages performed legally in other states and countries be recognized locally. HJR17 would have redefined that recognition to include only heterosexual marriages and effectively stripped local same-sex married couples of what little validation their out-of-state marriage may have conveyed. As a monogamously-coupled gay man who joined his partner in furiously packing the car for an emergency drive to california only hours before the dreaded Prop 8 decision came in (we didn't make it there, by the way), this posed a potentially disastrous backstep for all of us in Wyoming who see a woman- (or man-) free marriage in our futures.

Not to worry, though; thanks to the efforts of our local LGBT lobbyists, democratic legislators, and a few republicans who have retained their patriotic sanity, HJR17 is DEAD! While it survived the committee and made it to the House Floor, it was defeated in a 60-35 vote, far short of the 2/3 requirement for constitutional amendment, removing it from legislative action until after 2010. Full details of the fight can be found athttp://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid72623.asp.

We should all extend our applause to all those representatives who defeated the bill, especially those several who crossed party lines. Of particular note is Rep. Sue Wallis (R-Recluse) who observed that the bill is motivated by anachronistic biblical ideals that do not reflect the current state of society, and Rep. Patrick Goggles (D-Ethete), who cast his vote as a means of representing the views and lifestyles of all his constituents.

I call this an unqualified victory for the state that styles itself "the equality state". While we havn't yet secured the right to get married, we at least have defeated threats to our right to BE married, and in the process recognized several of our public servants for their dedication to the philosphoy of democracy; government by ALL the people, not by the largest group.

What are your thoughts? Is this really a victory, or a stay of execution? And what, if anything, does it say about local prgress in the gay rights movement?