Amendment to Gay Marriage Voted Through

Amendment to Gay Marriage Voted Through
By Michael F. Haverluck
CBNNews.com

CBNNews.com -- BOSTON -- Massachusetts Legislature voted Tuesday to put through the proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in a crucial decision that could place the measure on the ballot in 2008.

As legislators arrived to vote on a possible amendment to constitution that would define marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman, supporters and opponents of the measure waved signs just outside the Statehouse in Boston.

In order to get the amendment on the 2008 ballot, 170,000 signatures were collected by supporters. However, approval from the Legislature is still required.

The legislative session came to a close Tuesday with Senate President Robert Travaglini not disclosing whether he will demand a vote. Backers of the amendment were upset last fall when Legislature was dismissed without casting its vote.

"Legislators are sent to Beacon Hill to vote on a matter, not to not vote on a matter," stated Paul Ferro, a 30-year-old amendment supporter from Norton.

After the 2003 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that the state Constitution guarantees the right of marriage to gays, approximately 8,000 same-sex couples in Massachusetts were joined in wedlock. Civil unions are offered in a few other states, where gays couples are given similar rights. Massachusetts remains the only state, however, that has made gay marriage legal.

If the proposed amendment passes, the existing 8,000 marriages would not be dissolved, but future same-sex marriages would be banned.

Amendment backers rallied with signs stating, "Let the People Vote," on the steps of the Statehouse Tuesday. A common consensus among supporters was that people, not the courts, should be given the power to define something as crucial as the institution of marriage.

On the other side, opponents to the amendment stood with signs donning statements such as, "Let the people marry." They contended that the civil rights of a minority should not be determined by a popular vote.

Some in the Legislature commented that they would not vote on the marriage amendment because discrimination would be written into the constitution through the ballot question.

Inciting the Legislature to not vote on banning same-sex marriage, Massachusetts' governor elect stated, "adults should be free to choose whome they with to love and marry."

Democrat Deval Patrick contests that the debate is "a question of conscience," adding that the state's intervening into private matters "is a dangerous precedent, and an unworthy one."

The Bible states that the institution of marriage was created by God to unite a man and woman into one flesh for the purpose of honoring and serving Him.

Source: Associated Press
The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. © 2007