Minnesota
Minnesota is home to over 14,000 same-sex couples and has one of the highest concentrations of such couples and families, in the city of Minneapolis, throughout the entire country. Since 2004, the state legislature blocked multiple attempts to write discrimination into the state constitution. State advocacy groups and citizens across the state continue to work towards ending the exclusion of same-sex couples and their families from marriage.
Read Project 515’s Minnesota Stories about the discrimination created by exclusion from marriage.
WHERE YOU CAN GO TO GET INVOLVED OR LEARN MORE:
OutFront Minnesota
OutFront Minnesota's mission is to make our state a place where GLBT Minnesotans have the freedom, power, and confidence to make the best choices for their own lives.
Project 515
Project 515 is a focused initiative with a specific, achievable goal: to ensure that same sex couples and their families have equal rights and considerations under Minnesota law.
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LEGISLATIVE STATUS IN MINNESOTA:
Your Community—Minnesota
Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
HRC presents resources, news, and the current marriage and
relationship recognition laws in each state.
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PUBLICATIONS:
Geographic Trends Among Same-Sex Couples in the U.S. Census and the
American Community Survey
Williams Institute
November 2007
Gary Gates at the Williams Institute released groundbreaking research
on the geographic trends among same-sex couples. The report finds the
biggest increases in Southern and Mountain states and states barring
legal acceptance of same-sex couples had larger percentage increases
in same-sex couples from 2000 to 2006.
Unequal Under the Law: 515 Ways Minnesota Laws Discriminate Against Couples and Families
Project 515
October 2007
Project 515 presents the 515 different Minnesota laws which same-sex couples and their families are excluded from.
Changing the Debate: Fairness for Committed Couples
A significant gap exists between the fairness Minnesotans value and what actually exists under Minnesota law. Nearly eight out of 10 Minnesotans said they think government should treat people no differently because of their sexual orientation, and seven out of 10 Minnesotans said they believe “gays and lesbians should have the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else,” according to a 2006 statewide survey. Yet at least 515 Minnesota statutes treat gay and lesbian couples in committed relationships unfairly and unequally.
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NEWS:
The Impact of Minnesota’s Discriminatory Laws Only Is Amplified During Economic Uncertainty
Just about every Minnesota family is feeling the uncertainty of today’s economy. Unemployment rose throughout the state late last year, and home foreclosures in the Twin Cities are at an all-time high. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Minnesota’s 12-month job growth was the third worst in the country in December. For about one out of five Minnesota households, a sluggish economy just adds to the financial uncertainty they face every day. In an economic downturn, plans for savings and financial stability take on a whole new meaning for the nearly 20 percent of Minnesota households that are led by same-sex couples.
Group To Rekindle Rights for Same-Sex Couples Debate In Minnesota
When state lawmakers open the new session next week a new group will try to rekindle the debate over whether same-sex couples should have the same rights as men and women who are married. Project 515 focuses on 515 state laws that it says discriminate against same-sex couples and families. Some affect couples in their professional lives, others in times of tragedy.
In Stand For Marriage Equality, Church Cuts All Unions
It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, you can't get legally married at Lyndale United Church of Christ. The small, liberal church in south Minneapolis was the first of several Twin Cities congregations last year to stop performing civil marriage ceremonies as long as gay marriage is illegal. These churches, and a handful of others around the country that took the same step, will still hold a religious ceremony to bless the unions of straight and gay couples -- but straight couples must go separately to a judge or justice of the peace for the marriage license. "If you feel that gay and lesbian people are loved and credited by God, then how can we continue to discriminate against our brothers and sisters?" asked Rev. Don Portwood, the reserved Nebraska native who's been lead pastor at the 120-member Lyndale United Church of Christ for 27 years.
PODCAST: Minnesota Public Radio hosts marriage debate
Minnesota Public Radio
May 8, 2007
Richard Mohr, a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of a number of books on gay rights, most recently, "The Long Arc of Justice: Lesbian and Gay Marriage, Equality and Rights," squared off with Dwight Duncan, a professor at Southern New England School of Law in Massachusetts, who got his degree at the Vatican. Mohr does a great job of articulating what marriage is really about. Broadcast: Midday, 05/08/2007, 12:00 p.m.
OPINION: The right to marry: who is really at risk?
Minnesota Daily
February 12, 2007
Today the GLBTA community celebrates National Freedom to Marry Day. Though it is not an election year where the right to have one's love legally recognized is at risk, the goal of educating people on GLBTA issues and facilitating open-ended discourse is as important as ever. Even those in the community who do not believe marriage is an institution of which they want to be a part, the ideal of social equality in the near future fuels their drive to fight for what they feel is right.
POLL: Minnesotans do not support constitutionalized marriage discrimination
Minnesota Public Radio
September 28, 2006
A majority oppose amending the Minnesota State Constitution so that gay and lesbian marriages, including those performed in other states, could never be legalized or recognized.
OPINION: Love, marriage and ... lutefisk?
Winona Daily News
August 20, 2006
If you think same-sex marriages are a corruption of family values, we're a society that allows crack-heads, criminals, and Ozzy Osbourne to marry and have kids. Are a couple of antiquers from San Francisco really more of a threat to children than Britney Spears?
Minnesota Democrats add gay support to platform
365Gay.com
June 12, 2006
"Minnesota's wing of the Democratic Party — the DFL — overwhelmingly voted to add a plank to the party platform opposing constitutional bans on same-sex marriage."
Methodists approve gay and lesbian clergy, affirm marriage equality
WCCO
June 1, 2006
Delegates to the annual state convention of the United Methodist Church voted to urge the national church to support the freedom of gay and lesbian couples to marry and the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy.
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MULTIMEDIA:
BLOG: State Auditor Elect regrets discriminatory marriage amendment vote
Eleventh Avenue South
November 13, 2006
Rebecca Otto, Minnesota's next State Auditor, told the CityPages last week that she regretted her vote for an anti-gay marriage amendment as a member of the Minnesota House in 2004. (Link to video.)
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Project 515 presents the 515 different Minnesota laws which same-sex couples and their families are excluded from.
Read Project 515’s Minnesota Stories about the discrimination created by exclusion from marriage.
