Broun aims at gay marriage
Wants amendment to ban
By BLAKE AUED | blake.aued@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:55 pm on 5/7/2009
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun will re-introduce a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the wake of recent votes and court decisions legalizing the practice in at least five states.
The amendment is a sign that battles over whether to allow same-sex marriage will continue to rage, even as state courts and legislatures overturn bans.
The D.C. City Council voted Tuesday to recognize same-sex marriages from states that allow them. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in April that gay marriage is constitutional in that heartland state. Massachusetts and Connecticut also allow same-sex marriage; Vermont and Maine will allow it beginning in September, and a bill allowing it in New Hampshire is awaiting Gov. John Lynch's signature.
The recent trend toward legalizing gay marriage at the state level "highlighted the need for the amendment," said Pepper Pennington, a spokeswoman for Broun, R-Athens.
Previous versions of the Marriage Protection Amendment have not even come close to gaining enough support to pass, and it has an even slimmer chance now that Democrats have taken over Washington than when Republicans controlled the federal government. It would require a two-thirds vote in Congress and approval from 38 states to be ratified.
"It's a symbolic issue," University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock said.
Although gay marriage is gaining broader acceptance, especially outside the South, it's still a hot-button political issue that could play a role in the 2010 elections, Bullock said.
Georgia voters passed an amendment to the state constitution outlawing gay marriage in 2004. Up until a year ago, Broun had said that he opposed gay marriage, but also opposed amending the U.S. Constitution on the grounds that state constitutions are easier to change.
Former state Rep. Barry Fleming, Broun's opponent in the Republican primary last year, pledged to support amending the U.S. Constitution and attacked Broun relentlessly on the issue. Broun changed his position last May, after the California Supreme Court briefly allowed gay marriage, a ruling that California voters overturned later that year.
Broun would like to see amendments at both the state and federal levels, Pennington said.
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