Same-sex marriage ban faces pivotal year | IndyStar.com

Indiana Same-sex marriage ban faces pivotal year IndyStar.com

Legislature to decide whether amendment goes to voters or starts over
By Bill Ruthhart
bill.ruthhart@indystar.com
December 31, 2007
Back to the drawing board -- or on to the voters.
By the time the 2008 legislative session ends in March, one of those two fates awaits a proposed amendment to Indiana's Constitution that would ban same-sex marriages.
To amend the constitution, two consecutively elected legislatures must pass the measure. Voters must then approve it in a general election. The General Assembly passed the amendment in 2005 but has failed to do so since.
If lawmakers in both the House and Senate pass the amendment this session, voters would get their say in November. But if the amendment fails, the lengthy process would have to start over again.
Supporters of the proposed ban don't want to see that happen.
"This is an issue where the legislators need to remember that the people of Indiana need the opportunity to vote to protect marriage," said Eric Miller, founder of the conservative activist group Advance America. "We have to let the people decide."
Indiana has a state law that bans same-sex marriages. But supporters say an amendment is necessary to prevent judges from overturning the law and allowing gay marriages.
Opponents say the amendment would extend constitutional protections to discriminatory behavior and that political and social conservatives are using the divisive issue as a way to drive voters to the polls.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike supported the amendment's first sentence, which defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
But that was outweighed by concerns over its second phrase, which says state law "may not be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."
That sentence, foes of the amendment argue, could jeopardize domestic-partner benefits, weaken domestic-violence laws and hurt Indiana companies' ability to recruit top employees.
In 2005, when Republicans controlled the Senate and House, both chambers voted overwhelmingly to pass the amendment. In 2007, with Democrats in control of the House, the amendment died in committee.
Amendment backers accused House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer of breaking a promise to allow the full House to vote on the issue. Bauer, D-South Bend, denied that and maintained he promised to allow the measure to run through the legislative process.
Bauer has not said whether he intends to allow the amendment to be heard this year.
On three occasions, the Senate has approved the amendment first and passed it on to the House. That, however, won't happen this session.
Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield, has sponsored the amendment in the Senate in past instances. Though he said he'd do so again this session, Hershman said it will be up to the House to pass the amendment first.
"I don't see a benefit in the Senate stating a view it has stated three times previously," Hershman said. "There is little use to move it forward if the House is simply going to block further consideration.
"I'm looking to the House to initiate the process this time around."
That means Rep. P. Eric Turner, R-Marion, will be charged with pushing the measure first -- a job that he said he's willing to tackle.
"I think Senator Hershman is probably tired of starting it and seeing it die in the House at the hands of the speaker," Turner said. "I'm certainly willing to start something in the House."
Miller, one of the state's most prominent lobbyists and a key supporter of the amendment, said he would encourage both the House and Senate to consider the amendment simultaneously.
But Walter Botich, the legislative chair for Indiana Equality, a gay rights advocacy organization, said lawmakers have more urgent issues, namely a property-tax crisis, to sort out. His group opposes the amendment.
"We have more pressing issues to deal with this session, and property taxes are on everyone's minds," Botich said. "The issue no longer seems as important to most, I think."
A recent poll conducted for The Indianapolis Star and WTHR (Channel 13) supports that notion.
The November statewide survey showed that 49 percent of Hoosiers support the amendment, down from 56 percent in 2005.
"This (amendment) was a tool to turn out voters, but since then, the general public has wised up," Botich said. "They realize this isn't a pressing issue, it's made to divide people, and it's something that Indiana doesn't need."
Gov. Mitch Daniels has no say on constitutional amendments and generally has steered clear of the issue, saying it's a legislative decision. In a recent Star interview, however, he indicated a measure of support.
He said he was "a believer in traditional marriage and a supporter of the law we have on the books now" and that he agreed "with the idea of protecting it (the law) against some creative judicial ruling in the future."
Amendment supporters point to a recent court ruling in Iowa as good reason to push the ban through.
A county judge there ruled that the state's law banning same-sex marriages violated the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection of six gay couples who had sued.
For four hours, gay couples had the right to marry in Iowa before the same judge delayed the issuance of any more same-sex marriage licenses until the matter could be heard by the state's Supreme Court.
"To those in the House who say they believe in marriage as (an institution) between one man and one woman but don't think there's a need for a constitutional amendment, all they have to do is look at what happened over the summer in Iowa," said, Turner, the Republican from Fort Wayne.
"That should give us some momentum going into the session."
Botich, of Indiana Equality, doubts it.
"I don't think that strengthens their argument at all," he said. "At this point, Hoosier voters and Hoosiers in general are tired of this issue."