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GRASSROOTS
Click if you favor gay marriage
BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI

In the past week, an online petition headlined MARRIAGE: A CIVIL LAW began making its way from one e-mail account to another — and it’s already captured a fair amount of attention. The petition implores readers to sign on behalf of the state’s "long and great history of recognizing the civil rights of its citizens." It calls upon legislators to uphold the November 18 ruling of the Supreme Judicial Court, which found that "current marriage laws are discriminatory toward gay men and women, encourage exclusiveness rather than inclusiveness, and are unconstitutional," as the petition describes it. The call to action asks legislators to end the ConCon, which is considering measures that would ban same-sex marriages, and "amend the state marriage laws" to comply with the SJC ruling by May 17, when it goes into effect.

To date, the petition has attracted 2755 signatures from residents across the state — from Provincetown to Amesbury, North Attleborough to Chelmsford. There are even unexpected bastions of support — Acton? — where dozens of residents have circulated the petition and kept the cause alive.

The author of this seemingly spontaneous effort is none other than John Harris, of Norwood, whose first foray into the world of activism came during the height of the clergy-sexual-abuse scandal two years ago. After Harris read a January 2002 Boston Globe article about the notorious Boston priest Paul Shanley, it triggered his own memories of being raped by Shanley as a young man — and stirred him to action. He soon began picketing daily outside the Boston archdiocese and the office of Attorney General Tom Reilly. When Reilly ultimately declined to file criminal charges against Bernard Cardinal Law and other archdiocesan officials last July, Harris organized the well-publicized push among sex-abuse victims to convince US Attorney Michael Sullivan to investigate the officials under federal racketeering and conspiracy laws.

Now Harris, who also happens to be gay, has turned his attention toward the legislature and its debate over same-sex marriage. In a brief e-mail to the Phoenix, he explained that he actually started the online petition back in December and has presented it to all members of the legislature before each session of the ConCon because he believes legislators are wasting time and resources debating how to thwart the SJC decision, rather than figuring out how to implement it. As he wrote in his e-mail, "I believe [legislators’] behavior is disgraceful and disrespectful of the judicial branch of government and its purpose. They have decided to waste taxpayers’ monies and bend to the hollow threats of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, which is driving this blatant intrusion into government."

For more information, visit http://www.petitiononline.com/nowdoit.


Issue Date: March 19 - 25, 2004
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