Gay marriage up for debate in Pa.
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The Sentinel Online: The same-sex marriage debate has come to Pennsylvania. State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17, last week introduced Senate Bill 935 that would offer “full and equal marriage rights” to same-sex couples in the state and legally recognize those marriages performed in other states. With the recent passing of legislation in New Hampshire and Maine, and the rapidly expanding list of states considering the approval of gay marriage, the Montgomery County lawmaker said it’s time for Pennsylvania to act. “In the short term, it’s going to be a tough fight, but in the long term, it’s inevitable,” Leach said Friday, hoping to “speed up” the day when there’s full marriage equality in Pennsylvania. “It’s important that Pennsylvania be part of the discussion.”
While his bill would not require religious institutions to perform any marriage ceremonies or recognize any marriages that they do not wish to sanction, Leach said his legislation would dissolve all of the barriers to building families that gay and lesbian couples currently face, both at the state and federal level, such as the right of survivorship, power to make medical decisions, even the right to hospital visitation.The bill would repeal the ban on same-sex marriage that the state Legislature approved 13 years ago, which establishes marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and amend the definition of marriage in the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to read as “a civil contract between two people who enter into matrimony.” Currently, 30 states have passed amendments banning gay marriage.
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