NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003

They have reintroduced the Federal Marriage Amendment. The measure died in the last Congress with no action taken, but this time the proposal has 75 House sponsors.

Senate hearings on the proposal begin next month with the support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Opponents of the amendment are expressing alarm. One unidentified activist told the San Francisco Chronicle: "The gay groups don't mind politicians being against gay marriage, as long as it's not written into the Constitution. They figure they can come back in 10 years when things have calmed down and revisit it."

But social conservatives are intent on getting the prohibition written into the Constitution. The Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of Traditional Values Coalition, noted, "You can't rule a constitutional amendment unconstitutional."

The Chronicle reported Wednesday, "If the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules - as it could any day - that gay couples have a right to marry in that state, the push to amend the federal Constitution will pick up more force."

"President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have said they are awaiting the Massachusetts court's decision to determine how to further 'codify' that legal marriage remain the union of a man and a woman."

The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act already requires marriage to be between a man and a woman for federal purposes. So is a constitutional amendment next?

"There are two possibilities with that reference" by the president, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. "Either he was babbling, which I don't rule out entirely, or he's for a constitutional amendment."

Frank and two other homosexual House members, Reps. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., have urged colleagues to oppose an amendment.

The proposed Federal Marriage Amendment reads: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."

Supporters agree that approval of a constitutional amendment would be a difficult feat. Passage requires support from two-thirds of the Senate and House and three-quarters of the state legislatures.

Copyright 2003 by United Press International.

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