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Ohio senators back ban of gay marriage
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| Contributor | ... |
| Last Edited | ... Jul 14, 2004 11:33am |
| Category | News |
| News Date | Jul 14, 2004 12:00am |
| Description | Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
Washington- Both of Ohio's U.S. senators are poised to vote today in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, they said, but both are hoping they don't have to.
They are likely to get their way.
Short on votes and beset by internal divisions, Senate Republicans acknowledged they are likely to vote only on a procedural matter. If that fails, as expected, they would be unable to vote on the actual amendment.
Any number of sena tors - Republicans as well as Democrats - thus would be spared from having to come down conclusively on one side of the raging social issue or the other.
The gay-marriage amendment is ex pected to face the test around noon today.
Ohio Sens. Mike De Wine and George Voin ovich, both Republicans, said separately Tuesday that they had decided that their feelings against same-sex marriage required them to vote their convictions.
Both also said they would prefer to give states and the courts more time to grapple with the matter before amending the Constitution.
"My intention is to vote for cloture," DeWine said, using a term for how the Senate cuts off debate. Cloture requires 60 votes, and a matter is deemed unready for a vote on substance if it cannot get 60 cloture votes first.
"And if we ever get to the amendment, it would be my intention to vote for the amendment as it is written," DeWine said.
The emotionally charged amendment provides that marriage within the United States "shall consist only of a man and a woman."
It adds that neither the federal nor any state constitution "shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."
Some critics argue that the second sentence would ban civil unions, and its inclusion compli cated efforts by GOP leaders to gain passage.
Civil unions, if approved by states, are even supported b |
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