Minnesota State Senator Scott Dibble, the only openly gay member of the Minnesota Senate, spoke to Macalester students on Thursday, April 1. Macalester Democrats sponsored the event.

Senator Dibble (Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Minneapolis) spoke on the issue of same-sex marriage in Minnesota. Senator Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater) recently proposed a bill that would place on the November ballot an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

The bill passed the Minnesota House of Representatives but failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has ended traditional action on the bill for this session.

Dibble spoke on his views of the political movement supporting the amendment and how it has shrouded the public from the real issues of the upcoming election.

“Thirty-eight thousand [workers in the past year] thrown off health care in Minnesota,” Dibble said. “This is one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest country, and what is this? It’s absolutely foolish.”

Dibble cited the recent trend of states considering same-sex civil unions as progress toward winning the fight. He did mention, however, his disappointment with some of the DFL representatives in the Minnesota House who voted for the amendment earlier in the week.

“Personally, it hurts,” Dibble said. “We try not to take it personally over there, but this is my life. They’re ramping up the language of hatred and fear and they’re cutting short a public debate that needs to be heard. This would be the first time we amended the constitution to discriminate.”

“It was really good to hear such a down-to-earth and sensible politician,” Carolyn Fryberger ’07 said. “I’m glad he’s in the position he’s in and I think it’s awesome that he got elected with 80 percent of the vote!”

Following the speech students stayed around to discuss the issues Dibble brought up and the actions of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Several followed Dibble out of the room to speak with him personally.

“It was fantastic, better than I could have imagined,” said Matt Pierce ’07, who contacted Dibble. “He had the history, the current, the right-wing ideologues. He had the behind-the-scenes information, the agenda setting.”

According to Dibble, a St. Thomas graduate, he began his public service in 1983. He said that at the time, the AIDS crisis was beginning to surface in Minnesota and was being ignored by then-President Reagan. Dibble said he “came out to myself and then to others” before starting activist groups to fight for equal rights.

Prior to his service in the Minnesota legislature, Dibble said he worked with a number of AIDS awareness groups such as ACT UP. Dibble also reflected on the current GLBT movement and his involvement within it.

“The GLBT movement is a very loose movement without a charismatic leader,” Dibble said. “I’m just running to catch up. And there’s something great about that. It’s grassroots.”