BOSTON (ABP) — The Massachusetts legislature convened an unusual constitutional convention Feb. 11 to consider ways to reverse or limit the state supreme court's recent legalization of gay marriage.
With thousands of protesters gathered outside, legislators began debating legal measures that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples, while perhaps creating a category of civil unions for gays.
Legal experts say the constitutional showdown in Massachusetts will have an impact on the nationwide debate over gay rights and the legal definition of marriage.
In November, Massachusetts became the epicenter of that growing debate when a closely divided Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a state agency could not deny same-sex couples the right to marry. The same court ruled Feb. 4 that a civil-union law under consideration would create an “unconstitutional, inferior and discriminatory status for same-sex couples.”
The November decision gave the state's legislature 180 days to enact statutes creating same-sex marriage. But instead, armed with widespread criticism of the high-court ruling from within the state and beyond, legislators proposed amending the constitution to circumvent the court's ruling and limit marriage to heterosexuals.
If that doesn't happen, Massachusetts would become the first legal jurisdiction in the United States to sanction same-sex marriage. Neighboring Vermont has a civil-union law that offers same-sex couples most of the legal rights of marriage while reserving the term “marriage” for opposite-sex couples.
As the historic session opened, legislators rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage without creating civil unions.
They then turned their attention to an amendment that would restrict marriage to heterosexuals beginning in 2006 and reclassify same-sex marriages that take place over the next two years as civil unions.
The proposal has been denounced by not only gay activists but gay-marriage opponents, who have vowed to fight civil unions as well.
An estimated 4,000 activists from both sides of the issue gathered outside the two-century-old state house as the constitutional debate raged. Legislators are expected to continue their session to a second day.
Full-fledged gay marriage would give same-sex couples hundreds of benefits, affecting everything from retirement to property ownership, now enjoyed by heterosexual couples, according to the Boston Globe. Civil unions, like those offered in Vermont since 2000, offer some state benefits, but gay advocates argue that many of those benefits would not extend beyond the state's borders.
Gay marriage is viewed by political analysts as a “wedge issue” in the 2004 presidential campaign.
“This is the cultural issue of our lifetime,” Ronald Crews, spokesman for the Coalition for Marriage, told the Globe. “This has the same import of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, in terms of potential divide.”
Republicans are expected to use the constitutional showdown to attack Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, even though he has refused to rule out support for the gay marriage ban.
The Democratic National Convention will take place in Boston in July, only weeks after gay couples will be able to secure civil marriage licenses beginning May 17.
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