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Ala. Legislature Approves Ban on Same-Sex Marriages NewsMax.com WiresMONTGOMERY, Ala. - The state Senate easily approved a proposed ban on same-sex marriages Thursday, placing the measure on Alabama's primary election ballot in June 2006. The proposed constitutional amendment, which also would bar Alabama from recognizing gay marriages granted by other states, passed 30-0 in the Senate after the House approved it Tuesday. Story Continues Below A Massachusetts court last year cleared the way for thousands of gay marriages, and some local officials in California, Oregon and New York also allowed same-sex weddings before courts stopped them. Voters in 13 states responded to the trend by approving bans on gay marriage. Sen. Hinton Mitchem had been trying for four years to pass a constitutional ban in Alabama before last year's gay weddings heightened public interest. "It's not good for our children to see," the Democrat said. Howard Bayless, chairman of the board of the gay rights group Equality Alabama, accused the Legislature of "meddling into the lives of families. The government is deciding what our families are and what families are made of and to me that's unconscionable." Debate over the measure focused largely on when it would go before voters. Many Republicans had wanted it on the November 2006 general election ballot because they felt it would bring out conservative voters.
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