From: Facessd@aol.com Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 16:58:02 -0500 Subject: South Dakota Marriage Bill in Senate Hearings Monday Free Americans Creating Equal Status of South Dakota, Inc. Barry Wick, Executive Director 13121 South Creekview Road Rapid City, South Dakota 57702-8503 Phone 605-343-5577 FAX 605-394-8962 email: Facessd@aol.com http://www.qrd.org/qrd/usa/south_dakota/FACES FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE South Dakota Senators on the Judiciary Committee will hear testimony Monday on a bill designed to stop gays and lesbians from marrying. House Bill 1143 states that marriage should be only for a man and a woman. Activists from around the state of South Dakota will converge on the small hearing room 413 in the state capital building in Pierre starting on Monday, February 12th at 10 a.m. There have been surprises for both sides of this issue. Proponants of the bill including those from the Eagle Forum and the South Dakota Family Policy Council, affiliated with Focus on the Family, had expected the bill to sail through the House State Affairs Committee as a similar bill had the previous year. The committee's vote the previous year was 9-3 in favor of a ban on same-sex marriage. However, 1996 proved to be a different year in front of the same committee members with a decision in the opposite direction, 7-6 against a "do pass" motion and then 8-5 on a motion to table. Not to be stymied, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, told opponants that it wasn't over. True to his word, he organized a "smoke-out" procedure in which the House told the committee to send the bill back to the floor of the House. Before doing so, the committee issued an 8-5 vote in favor of a "do not pass" motion. Not to be outdone, Hunt asked the full House to void the committee's decision by removing the word "not" from the committee's "do not pass" vote which the House did. Then the bill was passed by the House 49-18. Anti-gay organizers tried to get the bill into a more favorable committee in the Senate and failed. HB 1143 landed before the Senate Judiciary Committee which had nixed a similar bill in the 1995 session. Even South Dakota Family Policy Council Executive Director John Paulton was heard this week on the nationally syndicated radio talk show,"Focus on the Family with James Dobson" saying the committee assignment was unfavorable. If the Senate Judiciary Committee votes "do not pass" or to table the bill, opponents expecte HB 1143 to be smoked out onto the floor by a third of the Senate members, the requirements for a "smoke-out" procedure. In a related action, The City of Brookings Human Rights Committee told the South Dakota Senate today to reject HB 1143 because it is discriminatory. Committee Chairman Geoffrey Grant issued the statement this morning that said it was the committee's belief the bill originated out of homophobia. It stated four main reasons for rejecting the bill including the potential that South Dakotans already insured by companies would suffer loss of their benefits. The SDFPC said in a recent "same-sex marriage law overview" mailed across the state that "most opponents of this bill are unwilling to speak up in favor of gay marriage." Barry Wick, executive director of FACES of South Dakota said "We support marriage. We are in favor of marriage for two committed, loving adults who wish to share a life together. We are in favor of the stabilizing qualities of marriage. The SDFPC and sponsors of HB 1143 are the ones against marriage and against those families who stay together despite their lack of inclusion in modern America. Why Rep. Hunt and the SDFPC want to divide America by love, I'll never completely understand." -30-