Show M H HI The Governor and Civil Unions Susan Roylance Contributing Writer The news of Governor Huntsman's support for Civil Unions has taken the State and the theN N Nation ati n b by storm The information was not released in any official manner no press conference no news new release just a comment by the Governors Governor's official spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley to a reporter for forthe forthe forthe the Salt Lake Tribune The information is particularly newsworthy because civil unions are against the law in Utah as established by Amendment 3 to the Utah Constitution It would require another amendment to the Constitution to change that law In response to the Governors Governor's statement the Coalition for Traditional Marriage has scheduled a rally at the Capitol for Wednesday afternoon The press release states that The Governor has recently stated that he supports these measures but he is wrong to do so We do not want to fall into the same trap created by the California Californi Legislature when they passed marriage like benefits which temporarily resulted in gay marriage in that state In an interview with on Governor Continued on AS Y j jy y I x f or r r w r 4 Photo courtesy of Utah Go v Governor Huntsman delivers the State of the State address at the Utah State Capitol Governor Civil Unions Continued from A Al I 1 Tuesday the Governor said This is not a personal initiative per se but rather responding to toa toa a newspaper that asked about the Common Ground Initiative yesterday My response was that I support the Common Ground Initiative I think there are some aspects to it that would be very important in n healing our community in bringing it together 70 of are opposed to amending the constitution to permit civil unions according to a poll reported in the Tribune in January The questions was asked Do you support amending the constitution to permit civil unions for same sex couples 70 opposed such an amendment 25 were in favor Only 5 were undecided However the poll shows th 1 t tOI nf f T Ut Tt a h tr vo t toro ers LuaL a lUlU Q o o Ji ua yv do support increased legal protections for sex same-sex- couples in some areas Rep Jackie Biskupski Salt D-Salt Lake filed 2 a bill that would pave the way for a vote on an amendment that would allow allO civil unions The bill would remove the words from Article I Section 29 of the Constitution which states that No other domestic union however denominated may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect Biskupski was pleased to hear of Huntsman Huntsman's 5 support but she pulled the bill last week week- for lack of support Even if the bill had passed both the House and the Senate it would still have required a majority vote of the people to change the Constitution During the hearings for 32 a bill that would have allowed gay partners to sue for wrongful death several of those opposing the bill reminded the Senate Judiciary Committee that such a bill could be considered as giving substantially equivalent legal effect to marriage for legal matters related to wrongful death 32 was defeated in committee A gay rights group Equality Utah is promoting several bills before the Utah Legislature under the umbrella of The Common Ground Initiative Two other bills are still in the Rules Committee HB and HB Roskelley said that The Governor has not read specific pieces of legislation The long title for HB states that this bill modifies provisions related to discrimination in housing and employment including amending the Utah Act and the Utah Fair Housing Act This bill would define the words sexual 1 orientation tinn V u and gender identity and add them into the Utah Code in 48 places related to employment and housing HB creates the Adult Joint Support Act which allows parties who are not married to inherit from the theother theother theother other party and make health- health related decisions if the other party is incapacitated Opponents to the Common Ground Initiative often refer to the slippery slope toward sex same-sex marriage that could occur with passing any of the bills promoting gay rights We simply do not share common ground in chipping away at the definition of marriage said Stan spokesman for the Sutherland Institute before the Senate Judiciary Committee Last Thursday Feb 5 over seven hundred people attended an event at Thanksgiving Point when the Sutherland Institute launched their Sacred Ground Initiative They introduced five actions for responsible citizens to become informed and involved in protecting traditional marriage in Utah La LaVar Var Christensen the primary author of Amendment 3 to the Utah Constitution said one of the bills in the Common Ground Initiative package seeks to eliminate the second sentence of Amendment 3 and if that doesn't work the other measures are designed to invite activist judges to do that for them and thereby overturn the will of the people Senator Scott McCoy Salt D-Salt Lake a sponsor of the Common Ground Initiative said he was a little surprised to hear the Governor come out fully in support of Civil Unions The whole Common Ground Initiative does not even come close to civil civi unions He said the focus is ison ison ison on things like inheritance hospital visitation and employment There are frayed nerves on both sides of this debate people are divided and they are angry and we need to find a little more common ground said Huntsman in an interview with Doug Wright at He concluded by saying Its about time we come together and heal a little bit It is questionable whether his statement of support for civil unions has healed or opened the wounds related to the issues surrounding the Common Ground Initiative |