Home blog Margaret Anderson Kelliher endorsed by DFL

Margaret Anderson Kelliher endorsed by DFL

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Over the weekend, Margaret Anderson Kelliher was endorsed by DFL activists as the party’s pick for governor. Kelliher has vowed to sign legislation legalize same-sex marriage in Minnesota. She will face off against Stonewall DFL-endorsed Matt Entenza as well as former Sen. Mark Dayton in the August primary.

Here’s where she stands on LGBT issues:

Margaret is a strong supporter of marriage equality for all Minnesotans. She will work to advance this legislation, and as governor, sign it into law.

As Speaker, Margaret passed legislation that provides surviving same-sex partners the right to remain in their home until he or she dies, before the state could seek reimbursement in the form of a lien against the estate to recoup medical expenses for their deceased partner.

Margaret also supported the Health Care Securities Act that provides health care coverage for all Minnesota children, regardless of their parent’s marital status.

Margaret worked to pass legislation that would provide same-sex partners greater access to medical information and allow individuals to designate a same-sex partner to make decisions about medical care if their partner is unable to make decisions for themselves.

Margaret authored the Safe Schools for All bill that would have required school districts to have policies prohibiting harassment, violence, and bullying of any kind.

Margaret authored the “Final Wishes” bill to provide same-sex partners the automatic right to control their partner’s remains after death, and she co-authored a bill to allow a surviving same-sex partner to sue the person responsible for wrongful death and recover medical and funeral expenses. This legislation seeks to promote the right to honor the final wishes of partners and to sue in cases of wrongful death.

Margaret worked to provide domestic partner benefits for state employees by including these benefits in omnibus funding bills, but these provisions were vetoed by Governor Pawlenty, who voiced his opposition to the benefits.

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Andy Birkey has written for a number of Minnesota and national publications. He founded Eleventh Avenue South which ran from 2002-2011, wrote for the Minnesota Independent from 2006-2011, the American Independent from 2010-2013. His writing has appeared in The Advocate, The Star Tribune, The Huffington Post, Salon, Cagle News Service, Twin Cities Daily Planet, TheUptake, Vita.mn and much more. His writing on LGBT issues, the religious right and social justice has won awards including Best Beat Reporting by the Online News Association, Best Series by the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and an honorable mention by the Sex-Positive Journalism awards.

2 COMMENTS

  1. It’s just a shame that she really doesn’t have much of a record of passing more critical legislation. Why, as Speaker, was she unable to get both parties to work together? Why was so much legislation vetoed by the governor? Why couldn’t she stick up to the governor on crucial issues? This is a direct quote from the Speaker, “We will not stop until we have marriage equality in Minnesota.” So once marriage equality is achieved in Minnesota all other GLBT issues in Minnesota and our nation are no more? There are certainly more issues than marriage equality that affect the GLBT community. But she failed us this past year by allowing the governor to veto a lot of the GLBT-focused legislation. Such failure is not a quality I see in a qualified gubernatorial candidate.

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