As expected, the Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, rebuffing both President Bush and the social conservative movement. After two days of sometimes emotional argument, the Senate voted 49 to 48 to shut off debate on a call to bring the amendment to the floor. The total fell well short of the 60 votes needed to actually end debate, let alone the 67 votes required to approve a constitutional amendment.
The decision effectively killed the issue for the year in the Senate, though the House is expected to consider its own version this summer. Democratic critics of the proposal said its Republican authors had advanced it to rally conservative voters, even though lawmakers knew it would be defeated. They said the proposal was tantamount to writing discrimination into the Constitution.
Opponents also said marriage should remain regulated by the states, dismissing assertions that federal intervention was needed to protect marriage as a traditional union between a man and a woman. "All over the country, married heterosexual couples are shaking their heads and wondering how exactly the prospect of gay marriage threatens the health of their marriages," said Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin.
(snip)
Other Republicans argued that the political benefits of the fight against same-sex marriage were uncertain and that some Republicans running in more moderate states in the Northeast and elsewhere could be hurt by it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/washington/08cong.html?hp&ex=1149739200&en=463365f0d2b72379&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
