THE WHOLE NATION SHOULD BE SHEDDING TEARS OF JOY FOR THE PROGRESSIVE VICTORY... IN INDIANA!

A Victory Against Dominionists in Indiana
By Joh Padgett
Cross Posted at Monticello

On Tuesday, progressive and libertarian minded Hoosiers, as residents of Indiana are known, achieved a victory that was hard fought. A small but vocal cadre of bloggers, civil rights and domestic violence activists, gay rights advocates and new found allies from the ranks of Big Business in Indiana all joined together to help defeat Senate Joint Resolution 7, the Amendment to Ban Same Sex Marriage in the Indiana Constitution.

Wingnuts in Indiana have had a long reign of terror in the General Assembly, whose power has been dwindling in recent years as more Democrats have been finding success at the ballot box. Last November, Indiana helped turn Congress blue with the addition of three new Dems to replace three dangerous wingnuts. The Indiana House changed hands and became Democrat controlled once again, and a number of close Indiana Senate races indicate that we may see changes in that chamber in the next round of elections for those seats. 

Now with this latest victory the evidence of a tide turning grows stronger. The Hoosier blogosphere celebrated this victory enthusiastically. Bil Browning of Bilerico.com and Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana, a pair of modern day patriots, led the online effort, among several others who added their voices to the debate. Bil did a roundup on his blog to show what some other blogs had to say about the victory:

With SJR-7's defeat in committee, the blogosphere and online news sources exploded. Here's a quick roundup of stories I've found. I've tried to clip a few bits and pieces from each one to give you a feel of the tone. Feel free to add other sources in the comments.

• RiShawn Biddle (IndyStar.com/Expresso) - Programming Interruption: Gay Marriage Department -- By the way, heterosexual marriage is still around, the rights and privileges of gays to marry are still not being recognized by the state and the threats to marriage-- poor choices in mates, lack of communication and the unwillingness of couples to grow together as people-- remain within instead of without. And would have even when the day comes when gays can marry-- and yes, it will happen.
  
  
• Advance Indiana - Miller the Hypocrite Attacks Lawmakers for Vote Against SJR-7 -- Miller has a lot of nerve accusing legislators who took their wedding vows seriously--til death do we part--as voting against marriage. Both he and SJR-7's author, Sen. Brandt Hershman (R-Wheatfield) are divorced and married for the second time. As it always seems to be with these fundies, do as I say and not as I do.
  
  
• A Commonplace Book - SJR-7 Died in Committee -- Wow, that was brave of the democrats to stand against this - we can't forget them. I'll be sending them some flowers, without a doubt. I'm so happy I could cry.
  
  
• Mikerzz.com - SJR-7 dead - for now -- To be honest, this is a much better outcome than I had been expecting... Here's hoping that we can keep the momentum up.
  
  
• Sardonic Bomb - Marriage Amendment Dead! -- You know, I've spent a lot of time bitching about living in Indiana over the years, but with 26 other states having marriage discrimination amendments, the fact that THIS state rejected one is a reason to sit back and be proud for a minute.
  
  
• Indiana Barrister - Now Let's Really Protect Marriage -- Eric Miller and his crowd need to go somewhere and sit down. In fact, to paraphrase Robin Williams from his role in Good Morning, Vietnam; Eric Miller is in more need of oral sex than any white man I've ever met... This is Indiana! Do you people remember how much effort it took to get people to change their clocks in this state? If that's any indication of how hard it is to change things in this state, then marriage should be fine for a long time to come.
  
  
• Trifles from Anderson, Indiana - Kudos to Mrs. Austin -- SJR - 7 died last night. Whether the movement for enshrining fear and bigotry in Indiana's Constitution also died is an open question.
  
  
• Mel-Anon - Indiana Hate Ammendment fails -- The state legislation that would've written marriage discrimination into the IN constitution, which I thought must be a sure-fire bet to succeed, didn't even make it out of committee.
  
  
• Growing Sense - SJR7 Dead in Committee (Coma is probably more accurate) -- Hopefully as more and more states realize the negative results of similar amendments and the positive results for states who provide all families with equal protection, SJR7 will die forever.
  
  
• Shakesville - Anti-Same Sex Marriage Legislation Defeated in Indiana -- This is stunning, just stunning. I'm so happy right now that I'm weeping with joy!
  
  
• Masson's Blog - Louisville Courier Press on Death of SJR 7 -- Rep. Eric Turner, a supporter of this provision claims that this section does not limit the General Assembly. How can he make this claim? The General Assembly passes a law conferring legal incidents of marriage (whatever those may be) upon an unmarried couple... If he's saying that permitting the General Assembly to pass only uneforceable laws does not constitute a limitation, then he's an idiot.
  
  
• Blue Indiana - The morning after -- Coverage of yesterday's SJR-7 vote -- Yesterday wasn't a victory for the GLBT community so much as it was a moment of success for the entire state.

Indiana has had a reputation for being very conservative, sometimes referred to as the northernmost Bible Belt state, but with the influx into Indiana of non native Hoosiers coming to live and work here over the last 20 years, that reputation is softening somewhat and contributed to making this victory possible.

I wouldn't go so far as to say we've become gay friendly (plenty of recent evidence shows we are not), but the ratio of tolerant to intolerant folks here is definitely swinging towards tolerant Hoosiers for a change. If there is hope for a formerly bright red state like Indiana to turn blue then maybe we can be hopeful for all our futures.