SEN. LEACH TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AT CAPITOL BUILDING FOR PROPOSED SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL

            HARRISBURG, June 29 – Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Delaware/Montgomery, today announced plans to hold a press conference in Harrisburg to gain support for a bill he introduced that would offer full and equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania. Under Senate Bill 935, Pennsylvania would also recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other states.

            In a recent editorial, Leach stated that “many states are moving on the issue: Maine, Vermont, D.C., New York, New Hampshire and New Jersey. A bill banning same-sex marriage was recently introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate, and it’s important to provide a pro-civil-rights, pro-family alternative. But mostly, each day that gay Pennsylvanians are denied their rights is a profound injustice.”

            While the bill would not require religious institutions to perform any marriage ceremonies or recognize any marriages that they do not wish to sanction, Leach said his legislation would dissolve all of the barriers to building families that gay and lesbian couples currently face, both at the state and federal level.  

            “The case for same-sex marriage is simple. The state and federal government confer hundreds of benefits on married couples that are unavailable to single people. This encourages marriage, which benefits society. We should be doing with gay couples what we do with straight couples: encouraging them to enter permanent, monogamous, stable, legally recognized unions,” Leach said.

            The same-sex marriage press conference will be held in the Main Rotunda of the Capitol Building on July 8^th at 10 a.m.

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