He first ran for election to the state house in 1994,but was defeated that year. He won election in 1996.
In 1997,he introduced the first bill that attempted to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.[2] Although the bill was defeated,he symbolically resubmitted it each year for the rest of his term.[3] In 1998,he introduced the bill that successfully repealed the state's sodomy laws,[1] as well as a successful bill to grant hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples;[4] in 1999,he introduced a successful bill allowing residents of the state to designate any person,family member or not,as the planner of their funeral.[4]
In 1999,he announced that he was considering a run for the United States Congress in the 2000 Congressional election,[5] but later decided to run for another term in the state house.[6] He won reelection to the state house in 2000.
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