Bay State Lawmakers Debate Adding Marriage Amendment to 2008 Ballot

by Mary Rettig and Jenni Parker
July 12, 2006

(AgapePress) - - The president of a Massachusetts pro-family group says he is encouraged about the progress made to stop same-sex "marriage" in his state, but cautions there is still a long road ahead.

During a joint "constitutional convention" scheduled for today (July 12), Massachusetts House and Senate lawmakers are weighing a number of proposed amendments to the state constitution, including one that would define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The objective of the amendment, which supporters hope to place on the 2008 ballot, is to block future homosexual "marriages" in Massachusetts.

The Bay State lawmakers' constitutional convention comes less than a week after New York's highest court rejected homosexual couples' bid to win "marriage rights" and Georgia's Supreme Court reinstated a state constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriage. (See earlier story)

Also, on Monday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court -- the very same court that handed down the historic ruling legalizing homosexual marriage in that state -- ruled that the proposed marriage amendment could go forward, if it manages to clear the remaining legislative hurdles.

In today's constitutional convention, the entire Massachusetts Legislature is slated to debate, among other issues, putting an amendment on the ballot in 2008 that will stop same-sex marriages in the state. Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) says this legislative conference is the fruit of nearly two years' work by pro-family forces in the state, "and we've got another two and a half years to go."

Getting the marriage protection amendment on the ballot is a long process, Mineau admits; but he says certain factors are now working in the marriage defenders' favor. For instance, he notes, "because of the high threshold of collecting signatures, the approval level is 25 percent -- not a majority but 25 percent -- 50 votes of the 200."

The pro-family activist points out that the public is eager to weigh in on the question of how marriage should be defined in Massachusetts. Recent polls suggest that 75 percent of the people across the state want to be able to cast ballots on this issue, he says, and "even the Boston Globe, the fortress of liberal media, has called for the legislature to vote on our amendment."

And supporters of the marriage amendment are fairly confident about how a vote in the Massachusetts Legislature would come out, the MFI spokesman observes. "We have the votes," he says. "We have the necessary number of legislators who believe that marriage should be only one man and one woman."

In fact, Mineau says supporters of the amendment are confident that they have enough votes to keep the ballot initiative alive until next year, when another constitutional convention will have to take place. After the amendment proposal passes through that, he contends, the measure will then be placed on the 2008 ballot for public approval.