Both Woodbury House Reps Vote 'Yes' on Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Update: 9:30 a.m., Friday, May 10

Rep. Kieffer posted a note on her Facebook page Friday morning:

Before I vote on any legislation, I consider my principles, the people I represent, and then politics. As a freshmen legislator, I wish I had been more consistent with this system. Two years ago we had the “marriage” debate on the House floor, and I voted to put the amendment question on the ballot: I voted politics over my principles, and I justified it by saying “let the people decide”.

Well, they decided. The vote in the district was 43% in favor of defining “marriage” in the constitution. That leaves 57% telling me they don’t want the constitution to define “marriage”.

However, I wanted to be extra sure about this result, so instead of ignoring the issue, I took it head on. I asked 4000 constituents to tell me what they thought. I also included a “civil union” question. The results were about the same.

I tried my hardest to garner support for a new way of looking at the inequities in law regarding couples in contractual unions. I supported the “civil union” bill,and I hoped people would see that by taking the word “marriage” out of statute it would preserve its definition.

On Thursday, May 9th, I offered the “civil union” amendment on the House floor, but too many of my colleagues did not agree with me that this was a good compromise.

The Clark bill (HF1054) was amended to give extremely tight protections for religious institutions and has put the word “civil” in front of “marriage” in statute. Not the solution I hoped for, but I decided to vote with the people and my principles over politics.

I ran 3 years ago on fiscal responsibility, limited government and freedom (period).

I always welcome you to contact me, attend my open library sessions, sign up for my updates, and look up the bills I author on the House website.

Original Post

The Minnesota House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation that, if passed, would extend marriage to same-sex couples.

Woodbury Reps. Andrea Kieffer (R-53B) and JoAnn Ward (D-53A) both voted in favor of the measure, which passed 75-59.

Kieffer has previously supported a bill that would legalize civil unions for same-sex couples.

The bill will go to the Senate floor Monday. If passed, Gov. Mark Dayton will be the last step to sign the bill into law.