Joe.My.God. LGBT News
GOP Indiana state Sen. Mike Delph held a press conference this morning to announce that he will today try to resurrect the old wording during today’s final vote on a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. And if that doesn’t happen, he will vote against the new wording in protest.
Delph said he will vote against the measure if he’s not successful in restoring the original language to the proposed amendment, which included a ban on civil unions. Without the language on civil unions, Delph said, the proposal does little if anything to legally protect traditional marriage. “This is my preferred way to bring closure to this entire matter,” Delph said. “Done in November 2014. Once and for all.” Delph’s comments come four days after the Senate moved the constitutional amendment through its second reading amendment stage without the civil unions ban. The move is expected to delay any public vote on the amendment at least until 2016. Delph had planned to offer a proposal last week to add the civil unions ban back into the amendment, but he said the Republican caucus decided against the move. Also, Delph acknowledged he didn’t have the votes to make it happen. Later on Thursday and into the weekend, Delph sent hundreds of messages on Twitter, criticizing the evangelical community for failing to adequately support the constitutional amendment and defending his family against his opponents.
During Thursday’s meltdown on Twitter, Delph announced that has a gay brother. Therefore this whole thing isn’t based on hate or anything. If the amended bill passes as expected, Hoosiers won’t get to vote on it until 2016. Things are about to commence in the Indiana Senate. Watch it live here.
UPDATE: Today’s session has been delayed until 2:30PM local time.
UPDATE II: A local reporter comments about Delph being questioned about his brother.
I did not record the end of the press conference where some reporters decided it would be a grand idea to ask Senator Delph about his relationship with his gay brother. This isn’t the Oprah Winfrey Show, and that is not relevant to the story. However, I will take issue with the Senator’s indignant response to a question from Dan Carden of the Times of Northwest Indiana. Dan asked Senator Delph whether he had been drinking alcohol or using drugs at the time of his Tweets. Delph first said that the question was “asinine” and that he would not dignify it with a response, with audible gasps and groans from some of Delph’s supporters who were standing behind me and Dan. After the press conference, Delph told Dan face-to-face that he had not been drinking or using drugs, with others criticizing Dan for asking the question. Given the extraordinary length of time the Senator devoted to Tweets last week, Dan’s question was fair and would have been asked of any politician in a similar situation.
There is audio of the press conference at the above link.
UPDATE III: The ban has passed by a vote of 32-17. Bad, bad, bad…BUT the haters WILL scream.