Another Democratic US Senator Takes Name Off List Of Those Who Don’t Support Gay Marriage
U.S. Senator Bob Casey just took his name off the list of dwindling Senators who do not support same-sex marriage. Of the 100 sitting U.S. Senators, 48 now support same-sex marriage, and 45 of those are Democrats. The other three include one Republican and two Independents.
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“I ultimately decided that to make a decision about DOMA was making a decision about marriage equality itself,” Casey told a local Pennsylvania newspaper, The Morning Call today:
In an exclusive interview, the Pennsylvania Democrat said he had decided over time that the Defense of Marriage Act — the federal law that defines marriage as one man and one woman — should be repealed, and determined that such a belief could not be separate from the overall question of gay marriage.
In a statement Casey said he wrote over several days, the senator asks, “If two people of the same sex fall in love and want to marry, why would our government stand in their way? At a time when many Americans lament a lack of commitment in our society between married men and women, why would we wantlesscommitment andfewerstrong marriages?”
On Friday, NBC News had reported:
Progressive organizations say their supporters bombarded [Sen.] Casey’s office with 10,000 calls and emails Wednesday urging him to support same-sex marriage.
Apparently, they succeeded.
A Franklin and Marshall poll found earlier this year that 52 percent of registered voters in Pennsylvania supported same-sex marriage and 41 percent opposed it, a swing of 19 percentage points since 2006.
It could be seen as a race to the bottom: which sitting Democratic U.S.Senator will be the last to support marriage equality?
There are now eight U.S. Senators on the list of Democrats who do not yet support same-sex marriage:
Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.)
Mary Landrieu (D-La.)
Tom Carper (D-Del.)
Tim Johnson (D-S.D.)
Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.)
Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)
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