Birmingham Draws Wrath of Marriage Supporters Postpones Vote until July 17 By Ed Oliver June 20, 2002

Sen. Birmingham was reportedly jolted by jeers and cries of "no!" from the hundreds of pro-marriage specators in the gallery yesterday after he postponed the Marriage Amendment to July 17.

Approximately 200 pro-marriage supporters wearing "monitor" badges turned out in force yesterday to demand that Senate President Thomas Birmingham do his duty at the Constitutional Convention.

Instead, Birmingham was not even courteous to the voters as he postponed the "Protection of Marriage" vote until Wednesday, July 17 at 2 p.m.

Chants of "We Want to Vote!" brought more guards to Sen. Birmingham's office door.

But it was obvious he had been in communication with the opponents of the measure. The packed House gallery did not take this quietly, however, as they booed his decision and then started chanting, "We want the vote! We want the vote!" Birmingham and other lawmakers who looked up appeared stunned at the immediate vocal reaction from the gallery. Such noise from the gallery is never allowed. Extra security guards were called in and they eventually broke up the demonstration and cleared the gallery.

Congregated at President's Office

After the gallery cleared, the crowd congregated outside Sen. Birmingham's office, which had guards posted at the door. The crowd began to chant, "We want the vote! We want the vote!"

MassNews asked a security guard if they would allow a reporter in to speak with Sen. Birmingham. The guard went inside, and emerged with a stack of blank "issue/opinion" logs. She said to pass them out and have people write down their name and address and opinions.

An official with MCM, Jim Lafferty, then got in front of the crowd and said, "The forms you've been given will ask for your name and address. Don't give it to them. They are going to give it to the homosexuals. Any of you who are followed today and harassed, call the FBI when you get home. If Massachusetts won't do anything, maybe John Ashcroft will." Lafferty told the crowd that Sen. Birmingham's schedule would be posted on the MCM website (marriagematters.org) for the rest of Birmingham's gubernatorial campaign. "Turn out for his rallies," admonished Lafferty, "Go after him. We want him to see us every day." Four Allowed in Office

Four spokesmen exited Birmingham's office where they told aides they would be following the Senator everywhere he went if he continues to break the law of the Commonwealth.

To mollify the crowd, four people were eventually allowed into Sen. Birmingham's office to speak with his policy director. They were Jim Lafferty from Mass Citizens for Marriage, Ron Crews from Mass. Family Institute, Atty. Dan Avila from the Mass. Catholic Conference, and Laurie Letourneau from the Life Action League of Massachusetts.

After the meeting, Lafferty told MassNews that, the whole group mentioned Birmingham's lack of common courtesy to the voters and their anger about the lack of a vote. He said Dan Avila made an excellent presentation concerning the gross lies about loss of benefits to children under the Amendment. Letourneau underscored some of the other important policy and political points.

The policy director told them that a vote was not held because some of the legislators had questions about the Amendment. But Lafferty responded that they had tried unsuccessfully to meet with Birmingham and others to talk about the Amendment but had always been rebuffed. He promised to meet with any legislator who really wishes to understand what the Amendment would do.

"How much good any of this will do we don't know, but it was worth a shot, " said Lafferty.

Letourneau said " We let him know that we're not going to go away, that now he has the ire of conservative groups up, and we are going to come back in July. We are going to keep right on him. I also pointed out the fact that he is running for governor. He shouldn't assume that all conservatives are with Mitt Romney, because we'd like to see Romney defeated. That at least Birmingham has to come forward, obey the law and at least give people a chance to vote. It is hurting his own cause that he's not being available to all the people."

Dan Avila of the Mass. Catholic Conference said, "My role was to make sure that the Senate President was not basing his position on a misunderstanding of what the Amendment would do. We have gone to several legislators and discovered that they believe that this Amendment would cut off benefits like health care, insurance coverage, things of that nature. I wanted to make sure that the staff of the Senate President realized that our position on the Amendment was not based on that reading. Our reading is based on the language itself. Our job was to help provide legal background on what this Amendment would do. That will help clarify the debate and give us a better understanding about why the Senate President opposes the Amendment."

Anger and Disappointment

Some pro-marriage leaders expressed their disappointment as they emerged from the recessed Constitutional Convention.

Sarah McVay Pawlick, President of Mass. Citizens for Marriage (MCM) expressed her feelings to MassNews. "Incredibly disappointed. We can't believe that Senator Birmingham would have done this."

Ron Crews, President of the Mass. Family Institute echoed that sentiment saying, "I'm extremely disappointed in the actions of the Senate President to deny the right of the people to vote. We demand that the legislature give this opportunity to the people according to their Constitutional right."

Sandy Martinez, State Director for Concerned Women for America told MassNews, "I think it's another nail in Birmingham's coffin. I find it an outrage that officers of the court that we pay for with our tax dollars should choose to not work today. Every single person that is here today that is outraged as I am should get out their Christmas card list, their personal address books, their e-mail lists, write a letter to Birmingham, write a letter to their state representative and to every legislator they know and let them know that we will be heard, and we will have a vote, and we want them to support protection of marriage in Massachusetts."

Gay Leader Was Present

MassNews asked Arline Isaacson of the Mass. Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, who was also present at the Statehouse, why the gay activist troops didn't come out today. Did they know that the ConCon would be postponed? Isaacson answered, "We thought that would happen." Asked how they knew, did they get word from Birmingham, she said, "We were hoping, but you never know in this business and you never know in this building."

As to whether there is not a misunderstanding over how the Marriage Amendment would affect people's benefits. she said, "We are genuinely convinced that it really would prohibit a panoply of benefits."

Asked if she thought the Amendment would eventually come to a vote, she said resignedly, "Yeah I do, yeah I do." Asked why she thinks the vote keeps getting postponed, she said she has been working on Constitutional Conventions (ConCons) for years on other issues, and it is very common for the legislature to go in and out of "ConCons" with recesses as they are currently doing.

Rappaport Worker Attends

Earlier in the day, as pro-marriage people marshaled on Boston Common, a representative from Jim Rappaport, candidate for Lt. Governor, was handing out a press release challenging Senate President Tom Birmingham to "allow the rank-and-file legislators to vote on the proposed 'definition of marriage' amendment at the Constitutional Convention scheduled for this Wednesday."

Ray Boehm, Rappaport's Deputy Field Director, told MassNews, "Jim Rappaport has consistently supported this Amendment. He has supported it with both his signature on the petition as well as monetary donations to the cause."

Among the gathering crowd of marriage supporters were two men from Lynn, Travis Housman and Herman Cook. Housman commented to MassNews, "I'm out to support the traditional family. I think the traditional family is under attack. We see the effects of broken families in our society. We need to get the man and woman back together as a committed unit to the child. That is the best thing we could do for our culture. The family is the root of all societies for the past four thousand years."

Herman Cook added that the best way to address this issue is to come out. "Don't just talk about it, come on out."