Official denies signing petition
By Fred Contrada, The Springfield Republican | February 16, 2006
NORTHAMPTON - After a fruitless attempt to locate a petition that supposedly bears his signature supporting a ballot question to bar gay marriage, At-Large City Councilor James M. Dostal said yesterday he will concentrate his efforts on having his name removed from that list.
The petition, which was filed by 30 Massachusetts citizens, seeks to put a question before Massachusetts voters asking if they support a change to the state constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman.
Should that question pass, the constitutional change would override a 2003 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that legalized gay marriage, although it would not affect gay couples who are already legally married.
The Web site KnowThy Neighbor.org, which is dedicated to protecting the marriage rights of all families in Massachusetts, lists the names of the 123,356 voters who signed the petition.
After his name appeared on the site in early January, Dostal said he never knowingly signed the petition and vowed to get to the bottom of the matter. Dostal said yesterday that state Rep. Peter V. Kocot, D-Northampton, has tried unsuccessfully to locate the petition that supposedly bears his name. The longtime City Councilor had hoped to check the signature to see if it is his.
"Peter tried to look it up, but it's almost impossible," Dostal said, noting that there were "40 to 50 boxes marked Hampshire County" in a locked office at the Statehouse in Boston where the petitions are being stored.
"He spent four hours looking and found nothing," Dostal said. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Dostal emphasized that he does not support putting a question banning gay marriage on the ballot and said he twice declined opportunities to sign the petition. The KnowThyNeighbor site has issued a "fraud alert" warning people that signature collectors might have misrepresented the gay marriage petition as a petition to allow wine to be sold in supermarkets. Where Dostal's name is listed on the Web site, there is an affidavit signed by him that says the use of his name on the petition is fraud.
Kris Mineau, the president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a group that supports the petition, said yesterday that he believes there has been deception on the other side. Mineau said he has heard reports that people who signed the petition have found notices on the KnowThyNeighbor site falsely claiming fraud on their behalf.
"You can go on the site, find my name and claim that you're me and that you've been deceived," he said.
Mineau added that he has high confidence in the validity of the signatures.
The group Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders has filed a suit asserting that state Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly went beyond his authority in certifying the referendum because it relates to a reversal of a judicial decision.
Reilly, a candidate for governor, has said he personally disagrees with the ballot question but believes he was following the law in certifying the measure. The suit is expected to be heard by the Supreme Judicial Court in May or June.
The question, which is proposed for the November 2008 ballot, must be approved by at least 25 percent of the state's legislators this year and again in 2007 or 2008.
The Legislature has already voted down an amendment that would have eliminated gay marriage but allowed civil unions for gay couples.
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