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Language reworded on the eve of Senate committee hearing
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on same-sex marriage
by Bob Roehr
T
he Senates third hearing on the
“threat” of same-sex marriage
March 23 was a strange mix of acri
mony and ennui. In the end, it was
unclear whether any movement
had been made in any direction, or when the
committee might again take up the issue.
“The traditional institution of marriage is not
about discrimination— it is about children,”
asserted Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of
the judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution.
“Activist judges,” in finding that banning
same-sex couples from marrying discriminates
against them, are “accusing ordinary Americans
of prejudice, while abolishing American tradi
tions by judicial fiat,” he said. “The only way to
save laws deemed ‘unconstitutional’ hy activist
judges is a constitutional amendment.”
Cornyn said these activists “accuse others of
writing discrimination into the Constitution,
yet they are the ones writing the American peo
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., claimed he
ple out of our constitutional demtKracy.”
tinkered with the Federal Marriage Amendment
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the rank to make his original intent more clear
ing Democrat on the committee, called the Federal
amendment would prohibit states from offering
Marriage Amendment “ill-timed and ill-advised....
protections such as those of civil unions and
It would, if enacted, become the first amendment to
domestic partner benefits.
limit rights” and inject the federal government into
"We want to express love in the same way
the area of family law, which heretofore had been
that you do,” Frank said. “If I chixwe to associate
the sole responsibility of the states.
with another man, how does that hurt you?
She laid into a revised version of the FMA
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
introduced only the day before hy Sen. Wayne
What you have with marriage, we admire it, we
Allard and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, Kith C ol
would like to he able to share it,” Frank said. “If
orado Republicans and original sponsors of the
you are not prepared to make it illegal for gays to
amendment.
“I think thjs change of language is a gcxxl | have children, and few people are proposing
that, then how can you justify not giving those
indication of how controversial and complex
children the same legal protections that their
this issue is. Here, on the eve of a hearing into
sch(X)lmates have in their households.7”
the text of one amendment, we see a change in
Frank pointed to Massachusetts, where a
language so dramatic that we are now really con
fronted with a different amendment altogether,
constitutional amendment to ban same-sex
with its own unique problems," Feinstein said. I marriage is likely to he put to the citizens to vote
up or down. But the FMA would preclude that,
Amending the Constitution “is not a process
he said. “If the people decide to allow [same-sex
best done overnight, on a moment’s notice."
Allard called the changes a minor tinkering
marriage], you will cancel it out.”
to make his original intent more clear. Those
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a longtime civil
rights activist and ordained Baptist minister, said,
were to define marriage as only between a man
and a woman; to provide a definite role for the
“I oppose any amendment that seeks to write dis
state legislatures in enacting other types of legal
crimination into our United States Constitu
tion.” Conservatives have scorned any attempt
protections for same-sex couples; and to limit
the judiciary.
to link the black and gay civil rights movements.
Openly gay Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., was
“I ask the question: Where would we he as a
at his most combative as the second witness on
nation if Congress in 1954, 50 years ago, had rad
the panel of experts. He said the wording of the
ically amended our Constitution to uphold segre-
d m d .
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