psocoptera

The Massachusetts Consitutional Convention, that will decide whether there will be a popular vote on equal marriage rights, is on Thursday. I thought MassEquality's interactive maps showing the positions of the legislators were a) a very nice piece of data-presentation and b) useful for suggesting where to target any last-ditch phone calls, letters, etc.

In particular, I noticed that Representative Paul J. Donato (D.), in 35th Middlesex (north-eastern Medford), is still in the anti-equality minority... any 35th Middlesex residents out there might want to consider giving him a call.

(For those not following this, there is a proposed ballot amendment in MA to ban marriage for gay couples, currently a civil right under the equality provision of the MA constitution following the Goodridge ruling; it'll pass, that is, go to a popular vote in 2008, if 50 out of the 200 state legislators (160 representatives and 40 senators) support it. I believe the last known count was 143 anti-discrimination, 57 pro, but a couple of the 57 have said that they are getting "a lot of calls" and may decide at the last minute, so, there's still a chance it could be defeated, but it's going to be very close.)