(UPDATED) Goodwin on MN Same-Sex Marriage Bill: 'We Are About Fairness'

Updated below: Minnesota state Sen. Barb Goodwin (DFL-Columbia Heights), who represents Fridley, spoke on the floor of the Minnesota Senate Monday against adding exemptions for people who oppose gay marriage to the bill to legalize same sex marriage.

Goodwin called the amendment offered by state Sen. Paul Gazelka (R-Nisswa) "one of the most discriminatory things I have seen in a long time."

The amendment, to allow people to refuse services related to gay marriages based on the service-providers sincerely held religious beliefs, failed to pass.

"It violates every human rights statute ... that we have," Goodwin said on the Senate floor. "It's important to separate our religious beliefs that we want to impose on others."

Goodwin said the amendment would prevent a business owner from firing an employee who refused service to a gay couple.

She also referenced her tongue-in-cheek proposal in a past session to ban divorce in Minnesota. It failed, she noted, and that put the lie to gay-marriage opponents' devotion to the "sanctity of marriage," she said.

Update: Later in the Senate floor debate on the main gay-marriage bill, Goodwin rose again to speak (see YouTube video here or at YouTube.com):

"During this debate, and since it came up in the [marriage] amendment last year, I've been getting a lot of emails and phone calls, as I'm sure we all have on both sides of this issue.

"I got one today though that really touched me and made me think about what the ramifications are if we don't pass this bill for some of our young people.

"This one is from a young woman in high school:

"'I'm 17 and I attend Columbia Heights High School. Today you guys will be voting on same-sex marriage and I strongly encourage you to vote yes. In elementary school I was taught to treat others as you want to be treated. I've never let go of that. I believe that everyone deserves the same rights as one another. I like women, so one day I'd like to get married in my home state but my future is in your hands. I can't stress it enough: No freedom 'til we're equal. I'm not out yet but having to hide yourself every day from your friends and family is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I've had to be strong for myself. So please give us the chance to marry the person we love. Love is patient and love is kind. Thank you.'

"As I thought about what this young woman must be going through, I thought about what Sen. [Scott] Dibble and others have told us about the suicide rate among young people that are either afraid to come out to their families or afraid to come out to their friends. And how we can prevent that today. We can prevent that by not making them feel that they are abnormal.

"Nothing we do to prevent them from getting married is going to make her a heterosexual person. Nothing we can do to prevent her from being able to have happiness and love is going to prevent her from being a [homosexual] person. She knows where she's going. She knows who she is. She just needs to be able to tell her parents and her friends so she's not living a lie.

"And I think if we can do this here today, we can do it for this young woman and other young men and women just like her, and make them understand that we are about respect here in Minnesota. And we are about fairness and kindness and equality."