Gay Marriage Amendment Ban Dead For This Session

GLBT activists are being given a bit of a reprieve in efforts here in Indiana to enact a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. A state law enacted by the legislature in 1995 already bans same-sex marriages, but proponents of the ban want to see it written into Indiana's Bill of Rights. Sen. Brandt Hershman, the principal author of the amendment during the past several sessions, says he believes action on the amendment, if it is to occur, should begin in the Indiana House where it died during the last legislative session. House Speaker Pat Bauer says the state law is enough. "I've been asking people to show me that the current law has been broken, and they haven't showed me yet. I want to see the couples that were illegally married," the Star's Bill Ruthhart quotes Bauer as saying earlier this year.

Right wing fanatics on the issue haven't thrown in the towel yet. Advance America's Eric Miller tells Ruthhart he plans to continue the fight. Now that 30 states have enacted similar bans, Rep. Eric Turner, the principal proponent of the amendment in the House, laments to Ruthhart that Indiana is becoming a bit of anomaly because it has not enacted an amendment. "Certainly there are those, including the speaker, who say we have a law, and I understand that rationale," he said. "But we also have judges who sometimes interpret the law differently than we intended, thus the need for a constitutional amendment."

The same-sex marriage ban process is following a historically similar path as that taken by similar efforts to bar interracial marriages. The vast majority of states in the earlier part of the 20th century had enacted either legislative or constitutional bans preventing couples of different races from marrying. The state laws and constitutional amendments, referred to as anti-miscegenation laws, were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1967 landmark decision, Loving v. Virginia. The Court held that a couple's due process rights and equal protection guaranteed by the Fourth and Fourteeth Amendments were violated when they were criminally prosecuted for violating Virginia's interracial marriage ban.

UPDATE: It looks like Rep. Eric Turner has finally acknowledged the arguments of opponents that the amendment he proposed went beyond banning same-sex marriages. Turner tells WIBC that he is tweaking the language he will offer in a newly-proposed amendment next year to address those concerns. It's not going to make a difference with House Speaker Pat Bauer, who has already declared he will not allow a vote on the amendment in the House until he sees evidence that Indiana will be required to allow same-sex marriages in the absence of a constitutional amendment. Hat tip to Don Sherfick.