Utah Gay Lawmaker Prevents Anti-Gay Amendment With Sneezing Filibuster

An anti-gay amendment that would have prevented same-sex couples in Utah from being joint tenants for tax purposes was prevented from passing. With three minutes to go in Utah's legislative session on March 10, the legislature's only openly gay member ran out the clock with a creative faux-filibuster that involved non-verbal sneezes and fumbling.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that anti-gay lawmaker, Rep. LaVar Christensen (R), attempted to amend the wording of a bill from husband and wife or married couples, to just husband and wife. If passed, the bill would have prevented legally married same-sex couples from being able to be listed as joint tenants for tax purposes.

The amended bill, which passed the House, was sent back to the Senate. During a roll call vote at 11:57 p.m., with three minutes left in the legislative session, Sen. Jim Dabakis, a Salt Lake City Democrat and the only openly gay member of the legislature, sneezed and fumbled for words to ponder his vote. When Senate leaders caught on to his stall tactic, they skipped past him to continue voting, but it was too late. The clock struck midnight and the session was over.

"What they did was very meanspirited! SB 252 was a low blow anti-LGBT bill," Dabakis wrote on Facebook. "It was pulled off the board at 11:57 PM. The session ends at midnight. As they rushed this redneck-pleasing, bad bill through, there was only one minute left to vote. Roll Call Vote. When it came my time to vote - I had to deliberate. A long time. Until the session ended!"�

The Salt Lake Tribune notes that Christensen's thwarted anti-gay move to amend a bill is the latest in a series of actions by Utah's attorney general, governor and conservative lawmakers to skirt gay rights in the name of "religious liberty" since the state's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down by a U.S. district judge in 2013.

H/T The New Civil Rights Movement