Constitutional Amendment to Federal Marriage Powers

[Colin]

I am opposed to this amendment on several grounds the first being that this was more a peace making tactic than anything else. This amendment is stained with the illegal acts of former Governor StatesRights and as such has made me very much against this on a personal level.

Secondly, I am opposed to this amendment as it currently stands because it would cause to much confusion between the regions. The reason why we kept marriage a federal power at the Second Constitutional Convention was because myself and others at the convention thought that devolving this power to the regions would lead to more disputes about what liscenses are applicable in which regions and whether adoptions and marriages could be legal in other regions. As this amendment stands now it does not answer any of these problems and this vague wording could lead to more dispute and more conflict between the regions on this issue. To make this amendment more acceptable additions along the lines of what Mr. Bell has proposed would be necessary.

Thirdly, I have the same fears as Alcon about marriage laws being set and revised every month or so by the regions. Regions, especially heavily devided regions, could flip back and forth between a certain set of marriage laws and another set of marriage laws. This could easily happen in places like the Northeast, my region, where a good majority of the people either do not vote in the Regional Assembly or are not active. This could lead to new sets of rules being inacted depending on who votes. We could also see something like this happening in the Midwest or the Southeast which have smaller populations with a good number of people who would either not vote a second time, forget to vote, are swing voters on the gay marriage issue, or are just inactive.

It is for these reasons that I currently oppose this amendment. I may write up some amendments to this constitutional amendment tomarrow that may help rectify the problems I have laid before this Senate today. 

[Colin]

I oppose this ammendment.  Personally, I think that this issue has absorbed entirely too much of our time.  With terrorists trying to kill our citizens and a looming international crisis with the Chinese government, I fail to see how the issue of whether or not citizens of this country are allowed to affirm their bonds through civil union, is in the least bit worthy of the time of our government, esspeciallt since this matter has already been settled once before.

There are people out there who are dying, because they need better access to health care and we are devoting our energies to blocking gays from the court houses.  Please....

We talk about our rights, but for no real apparent reason, we block certain of our citizens from execising theirs.  What is it that we are affraid of, anyway?  That seeing gay couples wondering the streets will make us gay too?

In the time it has taken me to type this, hundreds of babies have been slaughtered in the abortion mills of our country.  Why aren't we doing something about that.  Why not, worry about that, instead of whether or not our child's friend is a homosexual?

If some of those of us were as concerned about life as they claimed, they would be working on opening up our society.  Droping our fears and bigotry and making life easier for our citizens, instead of slamming doors in their faces.

I truely find it sad, how obssesed some of my otherwise, fine collegues are with this issue.

Applause from the rafters.  Sorry to shed any pretense of GM nonpartisanship, but...

Gay marriage is a settled issue in Atlasia.  I did not agree with the judgement we made, but it was made by the people in a democratic fashion, and should be respected.  We have rendered several verdicts on the issue, all coming out the same.  The idea that the secessionists have actually gotten this garbage onto the Senate floor is shameful in itself.

I agree and stand by the statements of Senator Supersoulty and GM Ford. Gay marriage is a settled issue here in Atlasia. Why is the status quo such a bad thing? My distinguished colleague Senator Supersoulty is right in asserting that their are more important things to do in the Senate besides rehash an arguement about stupid wedge issues like Gay Marriage. I see this as nothing more than a bringing in of American politics into Atlasian political life by a few people. Instead of talking about Gay Marriage the Senate could do much more important things like start cutting spending a trying to achieve a balanced budget, reform the tax code, or enumerate Atlasia's position on the crisis in Uzbekistan.

[Colin]

Aye on all amendments.

[Colin]

Nay

[Colin]

Aye.

Yea!  That's 6 votes!

You need a 2/3rd majority, since this is an amendment. PBrunsel will determine if this fails or passes.

And since he already says he's in favor of it, it will probably pass.

But see that's the thing. Unless he votes on it this amendment does not pass.

[Colin]

Well none of us will change our "evil" ways so that's settled

We still have 23 hours left.