WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Senate's Republican leadership has scheduled a mid-July vote on a proposed amendment to ban gay marriage nationwide, despite objections by Democratic lawmakers.
A group of senators announced June 18 that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has scheduled debate on the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment to begin the week of July 12. The amendment would outlaw marriage for same-sex couples in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution June 16 supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment.
The amendment's supporters have said they do not intend for it to outlaw state-enacted “civil unions” or other legal relationships that offer many of the same benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. But gay-rights supporters and many mainstream legal scholars have criticized the amendment in that regard, saying its language was vague enough that some judges could easily interpret it to ban civil unions and similar arrangements — even when enacted by state legislatures.
Democrats have pushed for the vote to be postponed until after the November elections, particularly because a vote against the amendment could harm Southern Democratic senators up for re-election in vulnerable districts.
If Frist carries through with his promise, then Democrats will be forced to resort to parliamentary tools — such as filibustering — to prevent a vote on the amendment.
At least one Religious Right group attempted to rally its supporters to pre-empt such a move. In an e-mail “action alert” sent out June 17, the Christian Coalition of America urged activists to contact their senators to ask them to agree to a vote.
“If the Senate is buried in petitions, calls, letters, and faxes, they will not be able to ignore the will of the people they have sworn to represent,” the message said. “Force your senators to take a public position [on the amendment] before voters go to the polls this fall.”
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