The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on the gay marriage amendment today. I was surprised to see a woman on this otherwise white male committee. It's always a surprise to see a woman on a committee that does not have words like "children" or "family" in the committee name.
Republican Jamie Hagood stood out for more reasons than her gender. She is young and pretty. She's also quiet, or at least she was today. During my one hour and ten minute observation, I didn't hear her say a word. The men discussed and bantered back and forth. Occasionally she would hold a piece of paper in front of her face and say something to Sen. Jeff Miller, who sat beside her. The paper did not hide the fact that she was in good spirits and apparently making little jokes which both she and Miller found amusing.
The gay marriage amendment was number 26 on the agenda. Thankfully a few bills were deferred. The men had a lot to say on virtually every bill that came up, but they were struck speechless when Number 26 arrived. Immediately it was time to vote. Interestingly, their nays and yays were spoken in tones so subdued, I had to strain to hear them.
The surprise of the afternoon was that Democratic Sen. Joe Haynes voted nay. Haynes is my senator, and I can tell you he is no progressive. Of course, Democratic Sen. Cohen voted nay, as he did last year. (Cohen is one of our very few progressive legislators, email him.) When the full Senate passed this measure last year, Cohen was the only senator to vote against it.
Today's committee vote was 7-2 in favor of the same-sex marriage ban. The committee is comprised of 5 Republicans and 4 Democrats. Sens. Jackson and Kilby are the two democrats who voted like republicans.
I'm not sure what has happened to Sen. Haynes, but I like it. He needs some thank you letters. If he gets enough of them he might decide to give up his republican ways. Send him an email.
Republican Sen. Jeff Miller is the sponsor of this effort to enshrine discrimination into the state constitution. I must say he looks a lot better in person than in his picture. You can email him here.
Representatives of LGBT organizations were in attendance, along with the ACLU-TN. I saw no rainbows or buttons to indicate that members of the LGBT community and their progressive allies were in attendance. Most of the audience had left by the time the marriage amendment came up.
The House Children & Family Affairs Committee takes the matter up in the morning (Wednesday, February 16 at 8:30 a.m. in LP 16). As the committee name suggests, there are quite a few women on this committee. At least one of them is a flaming progressive. Who knows, there might even be a discussion.
