Pennsylvania”Marriage”Amendment Pronounced Dead

This morning, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage is, for all intents and purposes, dead for the remainder of this legislative session. The main sponsor of the bill asked the Senate to table it, which it agreed to do. According to the P-G, the senators were facing a long evening of debate and voting last night, with as many as 14 different planned amendments to the bill (including the one blogged earlier here). Apparently, the main sponsor pushed to table the bill because, even had it passed the Republican-controlled Senate, it would have landed in a House committee chaired by an adamant opponent of the bill and the bill would not have been acted on any time soon (the Pennsylvania House is controlled by Democrats by a margin of 102-101). This is welcome news for all unmarried couples in Pennsylvania:straight and gay alike.

-Anthony C. Infanti