Minnesota welcomes "most" of you: Voting to ban gay marriage

From The Advocate:

After a five-hour debate Saturday night, the Minnesota House voted 70 to 62 to place a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the November 2012 ballot, allowing the people of the state to decide the fate of marriage equality.

I want to think the people of Minnesota are pragmatic, sensible, and decent--a sort of island of sanity in a fairly insane part of the country. But, if they manage to let themselves be hijacked by this ugly, bigoted, and ultimately un-American political battle, I may lose all respect for what's left of my idealized version of the Midwest. The law is progressive. Rights progress and are expanded and extended, not diminished and withheld. Dear citizens of Minnesota, you must not write hatred and intolerance into your constitution. You are better than that.