Hurdles in the House

From Bonnie Washuk's round-up.

On Wednesday, a Democratic caucus was called to talk about the budget, but before money talks got going, Rep. Lawrence Bliss, D-South Portland, stood up to urge members to listen to that afternoon's public testimony on a gay-rights bill, and to vote for L.D. 1196 when it hits the House floor.

"As of this morning, we have 22 votes in the Senate, we have 75 votes in the House. That's not enough House votes to pass the bill," Bliss said. "If you don't think you know any gay people, please come and talk to me," he said while everyone in the room laughed. "I am not the only gay member of this House. I'm not even the only gay member of the House on our side of the aisle, but I would be happy to explain to you why discrimination is not OK."

The Christian Civic League sees weakness as well. Today they issued an "action alert", saying "In the next three days we must shut down the House of Representatives phone lines."

Interestingly, in today's email, the League comes down hard on Maine's Catholic Diocese for refusing to oppose the anti-discrimination bill. Heath even goes so far as to publish an accusation that "30 percent of the Roman Catholic priesthood is homosexual."

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