Speaker Finneran Has Not Given Up
MN Staff
February 6, 2004

This is not the time for supporters of marriage to give up, says the President of Massachusetts Citizens for Marriage, Sally Pawlick. "This is the time to flood our Senators and Representatives with support for Speaker Finneran's proposal."

The Boston Globe reported Speaker Finneran's thoughts in today's paper, writing:

"Thomas M. Finneran said he will refrain from comment until, 'I have thought through the options which remain for the people of Massachusetts.'

"'One of his top lieutenants, Representative Eugene O'Flaherty of Chelsea, was more specific, suggesting that the court might accept a law that allows civil unions and lays out the specific reasons why marriage should be reserved for male-female couples.

'I don't think it closes the door,' O'Flaherty said, adding that in reviewing the Senate's civil-union bill the court 'didn't have a statute enacted by the Legislature that has a written preamble or a section explaining why we think marriage should be between a man and a woman.'"