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SPEAKER 1: Communities across Minnesota are debating the marriage amendment on the November ballot. The amendment would add a definition to the state Constitution that marriage is between one man and one woman, effectively blocking same sex marriage in the state. The issue of who should be able to marry divides families, churches, towns, and political parties.

Sasha Aslanian visited the Iron Range community of Hibbing to see how the debate over the marriage amendment is playing out there. The socially conservative DFL stronghold is an area both sides hope to win. And feelings about the amendment run deep.

SASHA ASLANIAN: Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Hibbing recently held its first Reclaiming the Culture of Marriage Event.

AL JACOBSON: There's refreshments on the table over there. There's some coffee, so feel free to help yourself to refreshments while we wait.

SASHA ASLANIAN: About 60 people filed into the parish social hall. Statewide, the Catholic church is a strong backer of the marriage amendment and the single largest financial contributor on either side. Blessed Sacrament is the largest parish in the Duluth Diocese, and it's an active presence in this Iron Range mining town of 16,000 people.

Al Jacobson is a parishioner and attorney who led the event.

AL JACOBSON: We're trying to enshrine in law what is best for the society, what will make the strongest society, OK? And we believe that the same sex union will hurt marriage. Redefining marriage to include same sex unions will hurt marriage.

SASHA ASLANIAN: Sitting in the front row was Al Jacobson's wife, Patty, and four of their five young daughters. Patty Jacobson is a dentist who cares for many low income children on the Range and volunteers for the Pregnancy Life Care Center. She says when she and Al were asked to be church captains on the marriage issue, at first she wasn't excited to take on another obligation.

PATTY JACOBSON: I don't like conflict. I don't want any more conflict with my friends. And I didn't want to give up any more time away from my family. But then I realized it is very important and it's important for our state so that the people can choose law when, in many cases, right now what's happening is the judges are choosing the law.

SASHA ASLANIAN: Same sex marriage is against the law in Minnesota. But Jacobson worries Minnesota could follow Iowa's example, where the state Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage in 2009. Passing what supporters call "Minnesota's Marriage Protection Amendment" would put marriage laws out of reach of the courts or the legislature.

The event at Blessed Sacrament drew many people who agree with the Jacobson's on the need for an amendment. Dick Nordfold is the former Hibbing mayor and fellow parishioner. Nordfold is a Democrat who parts company with his party on some social issues. He's opposed to legal abortion, and he favors the marriage amendment, which the DFL is gunning to defeat.

DICK NORDFOLD: Who is out there that doesn't think marriage is between a man and a woman? But things are changing. And that is a concern to me.

SASHA ASLANIAN: Some of those changing attitudes have happened right in Nordfold's own family.

DICK NORDFOLD: We have members of our extended family that are gay and lesbian. And in one case, one is in a committed relationship, and a beautiful relationship. There's nothing wrong with that. But it's not a marriage.

SASHA ASLANIAN: 13 years ago, Nordfold's niece held a commitment ceremony with her partner in Chicago. Nordfold didn't attend and now says he regrets it. But his love for the couple and acceptance of their relationship doesn't change his view that marriage is between a man and a woman. But not everyone who came to Blessed Sacrament event shares Nordfold's support for the amendment.

24-year-old Ashley Rantala is a fourth-generation Finn on the Range, who founded Iron Range GLBTA. She's in a lesbian relationship and strongly opposes the amendment. Rantala says she came to hear what the other side had to say.

ASHLEY RANTALA: And it was interesting to hear some of their points. So I'm trying to just understand where they're coming from. But it was a lot more respectful than I thought it would be.

SASHA ASLANIAN: The Range is famous for its colorful political fights and labor battles. It's an area where people are not shy about expressing their opinions, and the debate can get heated. But when it comes to the marriage amendment, church captain Patty Jacobson says she thinks the discussion will be civil. Hibbing is a small town and people have common bonds.

PATTY JACOBSON: I'm glad that people felt comfortable enough to voice their questions, because we want a dialogue. We can't learn if we don't dialogue. If we're too threatened to dialogue with one another, we aren't going to ever grow.

SASHA ASLANIAN: One of the people in town most committed to dialogue is a granddaughter of longtime Blessed Sacrament parishioners. 24-year-old Jamie Ebert was hired by Minnesotans United for all Families to organize Iron Rangers against the amendment.

JAIME EBERT: We're walking into the location where we just got an office. And so we're going to have a nice storefront downtown where we can have folks stop by and pick up lawn signs and t-shirts and come in and volunteer. So it's just a really great location in town for our office to be.

SASHA ASLANIAN: The storefronts on Howard, Hibbing's Main Street, this is a place Ebert's been coming to since she was a child. She grew up in the Twin Cities, but her mom is from Hibbing and her grandparents still live here. Ebert's mother is a lesbian who, according to Ebert, spent 15 years in an unhappy relationship with Ebert's father, trying to be straight.

She's now living with a woman in Minneapolis in what Ebert describes as an amazing, loving household. Her daughter is determined to defeat an amendment that would limit the ability of people like her mother to marry the people they love.

[BELL CHIMES]

JAIME EBERT: Hey.

SASHA ASLANIAN: In the annex of a bicycle shop, Minnesotans United is setting up one of eight offices across the state. As for the other side, there's no sign of Minnesota for Marriage, the pro-amendment group doing any organizing here except through the Catholic church. Ebert says the approach to winning no votes on the Iron Range isn't any different here than the rest of the state-- have conversations and share personal stories about why marriage matters to everyone, gays and lesbians included.

JAIME EBERT: There is a strong set of people up here that have just never experienced this before. We ask them like, do you know someone who's gay? And they have to think about it first. And they think, oh yeah, I think I've got these neighbors who live together that must be gay. But it's just something that's not really talked about up here up until this point.

SASHA ASLANIAN: For the small openly gay population on the Iron Range, the amendment feels like a very personal referendum. Their Range neighbors will vote on the most intimate aspect of their lives. Twice a month, Ashley Rantala's Iron Range GLBTA meets at Hibbing Community College. The night after the Blessed Sacrament meeting, Rantala wheels in a black suitcase and takes out a rainbow flag, health pamphlets and condoms and a rainbow striped suggestion box.

When she started the group four years ago, she put up flyers, set up the room, and no one came. Now, people drive from over an hour away and they hold some meetings in Virginia to serve the other end of the Range. On this day, eight people come to the meeting, including Jeffrey Whitney, who's back in Hibbing for the summer after living in New York City for 18 years. Whitney graduated from Hibbing High School in 1994 and says back then he hightailed it out of Hibbing as fast as he could.

JEFFREY WHITNEY: Just because it was a horrible high school experience with being harassed, and I never was out of the closet in high school or even 100% for sure about my sexuality. However, I was in New York City for all of 3.5 minutes and I was like, OK, yeah, I'm gay for sure. But one good thing I will say is I've been pleasantly surprised in the GLBT presence that is open here, and the people as a whole are generally way, way more accepting than I can remember.

SASHA ASLANIAN: The main order of business at today's meeting of the Iron Range GLBTA is all the activity to help defeat the amendment. Rantala wants them to be even more visible in the All-American summertime tradition, the small town 4th of July parade.

ASHLEY RANTALA: Starting last year, we made a float in the parade. And we were in the Gilbert parade last year and we were-- it was fun. And we basically borrowed my dad's Escape and his trailer, and we made a big banner and we decorated the whole float rainbow and we marched with our pride flags right down in the parade. We got some remarks, but we got compliments, too.

SASHA ASLANIAN: This year, the group plans to be in 4th of July parades in Aurora, Gilbert, Eveleth, Tower, and Biwabik-- five times more parades than last year. Being so publicly out on the Range is pretty new, but they have some powerful allies. Most Iron Range legislators and labor leaders have publicly opposed the amendment. But CJ Peterson, at the GLBTA meeting, doesn't think the rank and file workers at her factory will follow their leaders on this one.

CJ PETERSON: Our union, everything is vote Democrat, whatever. All of the guys that I work with, they're not voting no, but they are still Democrats and they are still the blue. And I think people are relying on that too much. I mean, it's not like we're freaking Kentucky or something. But at the same time, we can't assume that a Democratic vote means a vote no.

SASHA ASLANIAN: That split between workers and leaders is exactly what amendment supporters are counting on. Minnesota for Marriage points to exit polls in California that showed 56% of union households favored Prop 8, which overturned gay marriage in that state. Amendment proponents are encouraged they'll capture the majority of votes on the Range. Range labor leaders say that won't happen.

Ida Rukavina is a 33-year-old organizer for AFSCME Council 65 on the Range. Rukavina has been involved with Range politics since she began door knocking as a child for her dad, Tom Rukavina, who represented Virginia in the state legislature for 26 years. Ida Rukavina says she believes union members will back their leaders in opposing the amendment in November.

IDA RUKAVINA: Labor leaders have come out in opposition to this. Our unions are about making sure people have rights, and this is taking away people's rights. And I think people are going to come around and realize that there's no place for this in our Constitution.

JOE BEGICH: I don't believe what she said. The people are anti. The older people are all anti.

SASHA ASLANIAN: Anti-gay marriage, that is. Joe Begich of Eveleth spent 18 years in the state legislature before retiring in 1992. He predicts a tough fight over the marriage amendment on the Range, and it's one he is going to stay out of. With his DFL party on one side and his Catholic church on the other, Begich says he has too many friends on both sides. And at age 82, he doesn't want anyone mad at him.

JOE BEGICH: So I'm going to just sit back and watch this show. And however happens, happens. I can live with either way.

SASHA ASLANIAN: Begich does plan to vote. He just won't say which way. And a ranger without an opinion to share shows you just how deep this fight is. Sasha Aslanian, Minnesota Public Radio News, Hibbing.