FIC Blog

The rumor today is that Andrew McDonald, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee and long-time foe of FIC, will be named to a position in Governor-elect Dan Malloy’s administration. We have no lack of disagreements with Sen. McDonald. But we want to take this occasion to say publicly to Sen. McDonald something he is not used to hearing from us: Thank you.

FIC defeated the effort to legalize same-sex “marriage” every single year it appeared at the legislature. But when Connecticut’s Supreme Court redefined marriage by judicial fiat in 2008, it looked as though religious liberty would suffer here the way it has in Massachusetts and elsewhere. This has not yet happened because in 2009 FIC seized on what was supposed to be a routine bill codifying the court ruling and amended it to include the strongest religious liberty protections against same-sex “marriage” in the nation–protections that Andrew McDonald voted for.

Yes, there was the full page ad placed by FIC Action in every Connecticut daily newspaper for a week, the 20,000 phone calls to the legislature generated by those ads, the air war waged by NOM and other allies and the still-stinging defeat of a McDonald-supported bill targeting the Catholic Church. But at the end of the day, Andrew McDonald voted for those protections. FIC echoes the sentiment expressed at the time by Maggie Gallagher:

“We are just grateful that the Connecticut legislators acknowledged and addressed the serious potential implications of same-sex marriage for traditional faith communities,” said Maggie Gallagher, president of NOM. “We hope this decision represents a change of heart among gay marriage advocates and a new willingness to accept broad conscience protections.”

As you know from FIC’s email blasts, the battles continue. But on this one vote, we say: Thank you, Andrew McDonald.