Equality State Policy Center director Dan Neal discusses the death of legislation that would have placed a constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot to outlaw same-sex marriage and civil unions. Also dead is a bill that would have repealed minimum wage and wage reporting requirements in Wyoming.
Friday was the last day to hear bills on General File. Bills not brought up for discussion in Committee of the Whole in either chamber by the end of the day die for the year.
We were pleased particularly to see time run out on two measures:
1. SJ5 – Defense of marriage – constitutional amendment. This proposal would have placed a constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot to make same-sex marriages and civil unions illegal in Wyoming.
2. HB 184 – Minimum wage statutes repeal. This bill would have eliminated laws imposing a state minimum wage and requiring wage data reporting of Wyoming businesses.Many people worked hard to kill the proposed constitutional amendment. In committee testimony earlier this year, opponents of the anti-GLBT legislation worried that Wyoming would be subjected to a long, intense, and ugly campaign if the amendment proposal made it to the ballot. Majority Leader Tom Lubnau indicated earlier this week that supporters did not have the 40 votes needed for House passage (a proposed constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote from both houses).
