More States Ban Gay Marriage

"Marriage is an institution that we have given certain privileges to, to encourage and to strengthen families," Patton said, in response to a reporter's question at the Kentucky statehouse in March. According to his spokesperson, Mark Pfeiffer, Patton said that if same-sex couples want to live together, "then that's their business."

The Kentucky bill, "an act relating to marriage," renders a same-sex marriage which occurs outside the state "void and unenforceable in Kentucky." State Rep. Sheldon E. Baugh, a Republican, introduced the measure on Jan. 6. The House approved it March 11 by a vote of 84-9 and the Senate approved it March 26, despite the leadership of Democrats David Karem and Ernesto Scorsone. According to Gay activists, Sen. Scorsone gave a "moving" floor speech just before the Senate went to vote.

"When you vote 'no' on this bill or abstain, you can go home and look your mail carrier in the eye, or you neighbor, or aunt or nephew or coworker, and say, 'I was asked to go against you and support the lies and prejudice, but I didn't give in to the pressure. I voted 'no'," Scorsone reportedly said.

The Senate voted 13-2 in favor of the bill.

Governor Paul E. Patton signed Kentucky's marriage bill into law on Apr. 2.

"While the vote count reflects a huge margin of loss, we have taken giant steps forward in our journey to full equality," said Maria Price, director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, a Gay lobbying organization. "Every floor speech is now public record against anti-Gay legislation."

Price said many of the legislators who voted for the Gay marriage ban were secretly against it. She said they told Gay lobbyists that they had to vote in favor of the bill to please their constituents.

"I do not believe Kentuckians are mean-spirited," Price said. "Our work is to remind legislators that civil rights were never, and never will be, won by a popularity contest."

Kentucky, the 27th state to adopt a Gay marriage ban, is not alone this week. A proposed law banning Gay marriages was also adopted by the Iowa legislature Tuesday, April 7.

The bill, which the Daily Iowan said some have called "a political maneuver for the upcoming elections," also denies legal recognition in Iowa of Gay marriages that take place in other states. It was introduced in February 1997 by the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jeffrey Lamberti, a Republican. The bill did not receive any action and quickly disappeared from the radar screen until a Senate version was introduced in January 1998. Lobbyist Peg Sandeen of the AIDS Project of Central Iowa said Gay activists were totally caught by surprise, due to earlier assurances from House leadership that the bill would not go anywhere.

Sandeen said she thinks the issue came back because the local media began reporting that the legislature had accomplished nothing this year (a major death penalty bill failed to pass, and elections are coming up this fall).

"They needed to work up something really quickly," she said. "They needed some bills on social issues" to satisfy conservative voters and, particularly, the Christian Coalition.

The bill passed the House on March 11, by a vote of 86-8, and then passed the Senate on March 24 by a vote of 49-0. It then went back to the House, for approval of a Senate amendment. The House passed it the second time by a vote of 89-10 and is now poised to go the governor's desk.

Sandeen said she expects conservative Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad (R) to sign the bill. Branstad's office did not return the Blade's numerous phone calls by deadline.

Another Hawaii in Alaska

In Alaska, where Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski ruled in February that Alaska must prove a compelling state interest in order to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the legislature has been moving quickly on a bill that would add a ban on same-sex marriage to the state constitution. Gay activists said they expected the full Senate to vote on the measure sometime this week. If passed by a two-thirds majority of both legislative houses, it will go before voters in November. The Alaska situation closely mirrors that in Hawaii, where courts have been ruling that the state must explain some compelling reason to deny same-sex couples marriage licenses, and the legislature has put a measure on the ballot in November to seek permission from voters to change the constitution to deny such licenses.

In total, the annual Blade survey of state legislatures has found 21 anti-Gay marriage bills introduced in 14 states this legislative session but not all of them have been successful.

Gay activists in West Virginia recently orchestrated a successful last-minute death of an anti-Gay marriage bill by bombarding the statehouse with calls and lobbyists. The issue came up after the state senate passed a bill concerning waiting periods for blood tests required for marriage licenses. When House Judiciary Chair Richard Staten, a Democrat, got the bill, he sought to add to it language from his own failed anti-Gay marriage bill. The amended senate bill then passed out of the House Judiciary Committee without discussion. Gay activists learned about Staten's amendment only the day after it passed the committee.

"We mobilized hundreds of phone calls to the speaker of the House ... asking him not to put it on the agenda," said Barbara Steinke, co-chair of the West Virginia Lesbian & Gay Coalition.

The House passed the bill (no vote count was taken) on Feb. 12, but Gay activists persisted in their phone campaign, and the Senate rejected the amended version, forcing the issue to a House-Senate conference committee. But by this time, the regular legislative session had ended and legislators had to go in overtime to deal with leftover bills.

"During this whole time, we [were] now calling the House leadership and the Senate leadership," Steinke said. "They [were] being flooded with calls from those opposing the bill, and they [were] not hearing from those who [were] supporting the bill."

Steinke said she thought the opponents of same-sex marriage didn't register their support for the bill because they thought it was "a done deal." In the end, the conference committee never called the bill up for discussion - although Steinke said they had ample time to do so.

"It really energized us that so many people would call, and that included a lot of straight people. ... I'm hoping we can keep that momentum going," Steinke said.

"This is a big deal for West Virginia," Steinke said. "We planned a rally for [March 18], and the whole time I was thinking it would be a protest rally, but it's turned into a celebration."

Illinois poised for big vote

Tracey Conaty said the bill in Illinois is similar to an Oklahoma law struck down as unconstitutional in 1985. (by Clint Steib)

Gay activists in Illinois hope that they soon will be celebrating as well, as a civil rights bill sponsored by an openly Gay legislator winds its way through the statehouse.

House Bill 3636 seeks to amend the Illinois Human Rights Act to make illegal any discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, and credit transactions on the basis of sexual orientation. It was introduced by Rep. Larry McKeon, a Cook County Democrat - along with 36 cosponsors - on Feb. 17, and was passed by the House Human Services Committee by a vote of 8-2 on March 19. Twenty-seven proponents signed up to testify before a committee hearing to support the bill, and only three people registered opposition. The bill now moves to the full House for a vote.

"This bill enjoys unprecedented support," said Rick Garcia, director of the Illinois Federation for Human Rights. "Nevertheless, we still have an uphill battle to overcome the anti-Gay zealots who wish to deny sexual minorities our basic civil rights."

The Blade survey of state legislatures this year has found 14 Gay civil rights bills have been introduced in 10 states this session. In Delaware, a Gay civil rights bill was unanimously passed out of a House committee on March 25 and is also expected to come up for a full House vote before the end of April.

Many Gay activists predict that family, child, and school issues will become the next arena in which the Gay civil rights battle will play itself out. So far this legislative session, the Blade has found 12 bills in six states dealing with Gay issues and education (seven of them anti-Gay, five pro-Gay).

One of these bills, recently introduced in Oklahoma, seeks to prevent Gays from working in public schools. The bill started out as a measure to prevent people convicted of sex crimes from working or teaching in public schools. That bill passed the Senate on March 4. But then the House amended the measure to also prevent Gay people from working or teaching in public schools. The House version passed April 2 by a vote of 100-0 and the measure went back to the Senate for concurrence on the House's amendment. The Senate rejected the inclusion of Gays in the measure on Wednesday, April 7, and now the bill goes to a conference committee to see if the two chambers can come up with one version.

"We believe that it's probably going to be buried ... but it's by no means a done deal," said Tracey Conaty, communications director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). Conaty said this bill would prohibit "Gays and Lesbians from working on school premises - and that means anything from teachers to maintenance to janitors." She said the bill is strikingly similar to another Oklahoma law, passed in the late 1970s, that NGLTF (then called the National Gay Task Force) challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was struck down as unconstitutional in 1985. If the current bill is passed and subsequently challenged in court, Conaty said, it is not clear whether the earlier Supreme Court ruling would apply to this measure.

All in all, the Blade survey of state legislatures this year has found at least 114 Gay-related bills introduced in 29 states this session - 68 are anti-Gay in nature and 46 are pro-Gay. The Blade found 71 HIV/AIDS-related bills in 19 states.

Kai Wright, Nicholas Boggs, and Rhonda Smith contributed to this report.

Copyright © 1998 The Washington Blade Inc.  A member of the gay.net community.