Same-Sex Marriage Amendment Fails in House
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
October 1, 2004
nytimes.com
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - A proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage failed in the House of Representatives on Thursday, a defeat the measure's Republican backers promptly vowed to wield against Democrats in the November election.
The vote was 227 to 186 in favor of the amendment, far short of the 290 votes, or two-thirds of the House, required to adopt it. It came after a day of impassioned oratory, with opponents denouncing what one Democrat called an effort "to play politics with the Constitution" and supporters arguing that the measure was critical to preserving America's social fabric.
President Bush expressed disappointment. "Because activist judges and local officials in some parts of the country are seeking to redefine marriage for the rest of the country, we must remain vigilant in defending traditional marriage," the president said in a statement.
Still, the vote was largely symbolic; the Senate has already rejected the marriage amendment. But the Republican leadership brought the measure to the floor as part of a drive to appeal to conservatives and force Democrats to vote on hot-button social issues.
"This is only the beginning, I'm telling you, because this nation will protect marriage," said Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House Republican leader. He warned that "if you destroy marriage as the definition of one man and one woman," children will not learn traditional values and "this country will go down."
Mr. DeLay was among a string of Republicans who railed against the social ills that they said flowed from the breakup of the nuclear family. At one point, Representative John Carter, a Texas Republican and a former district court judge, lamented that he had presided over the dissolution of 20,000 marriages.
The remark prompted an angry outburst from Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is openly gay. "I'm a gay man and I presided over the dissolution of none," Mr. Frank barked on the House floor. "I'm sorry Rush Limbaugh's been divorced three times," he added, in a reference to the conservative talk show host, "but it ain't my fault."
The measure's supporters vowed to keep up their drive against same-sex marriage. "This is the beginning of a greater national referendum over the future of marriage and the family under our law," said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, a nonprofit group that backs the amendment.
Thirty-six Democrats voted in favor of the amendment. Among them was Representative Chet Edwards of Texas, who said he voted for it because "I believe marriage is a sacred, time-honored union between a man and a woman."
Just as the amendment put some Democrats in a difficult position, it exposed some fissures among Republicans, 27 of whom voted against it. Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona, the only openly gay Republican in the House, urged his colleagues to defeat it. Representative Christopher Cox, a California Republican, wrote an opinion article for The Wall Street Journal saying the marriage issue should be left to the states.
The issue of same-sex marriage gained currency among social conservatives this year after the highest court in Massachusetts ordered the State Legislature to approve gay marriage and local officials around the country began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Voters in Missouri and Louisiana recently approved state constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage, and proposed bans are on the ballot in 11 other states.
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