A View from a Wisconsin Farm
If our last citizen reporter upset a few stereotypes about Repubicans then our next disproves the not uncommon European prejudice that an American who lives anywhere remotely rural must be a cultural conservative. Across the US on election day there will be votes on single issues from the death penalty to gay marriage. Here who lives on a farm near Menomonie Wisconsin "with his wife Lorelei and a menagerie of animal friends" kindly gave us his take on two initiatives in Wisconsin - there's more on this and other issues on his The picture is from the locality, it must be a beautiful place this autumn.
"Wisconsin voters are not only being faced with voting for elected offices in the Nov. 7 election, but are also being asked to vote on two referenda. These referenda (one to prohibit gay marriage and one to re-instate the death penalty) are on the ballot primarily in an attempt to bring out conservative voters to the polls. State constitutions throughout the US have been amended in the past few years to prohibit marriage of same-sex couples. Currently 43 states define marriage as between one man and one woman, and 19 states have voted in constitutional amendments prohibiting gay marriage. There have also been several attempts to pass a federal constitutional amendment on the subject to prevent individual states from legalizing gay marriage. In Wisconsin there has been a very vocal demand to prohibit gay marriage, and a constitutional amendment has passed the state legislature, and will be voted on in this election. Since this has already passed the legislature, this is a binding amendment - if it passes in the vote, it will become part of the state constitution.
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The wording of the amendment is:
* "Marriage. Shall section 13 of article XIII of the constitution be created to provide that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state and that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state?"
Many in the state are particularly disturbed by the second part of this amendment, as it could potentially remove many rights that non-traditional couples in the state already have. Similar constitutional amendments in other states are currently being used to deny legal rights to unmarried couples, both gay and straight. This ranges from prohibiting any legal status for couples that are not married (involving health care, inheritance, adoption, and other issues) to denying protection from domestic abuse for unmarried couples. This marriage amendment is being hotly debated in Wisconsin, and recent polls indicate that the results will likely be very close, depending solely on who goes out to vote. Organizations on both sides of the issue have worked hard at promoting their viewpoint before the election. My web site, Uppity Wisconsin, has had considerable coverage in support of defeating the amendment.
Further information is available from
Uppity Wisconsin - https://www.uppitywis.org/taxonomy/term/158
Fair Wisconsin - https://www.fairwisconsin.com
Family Research Institute of Wisconsin - https://www.fri-wi.org/"
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