Backers launch push for gay marriage ban

BOISE – Three leaders of Idaho’s conservative movement launched their campaign on Thursday to put a constitutional ban on gay marriage – and possibly any legalized civil union or partnership – before voters in 2006.

Energized by the strong majorities given to similar ballot propositions in 11 states on Nov. 2, longtime activist Dennis Mansfield predicted “Marriage Yes: One Man, One Woman” would not just ensure the proposed amendment wins legislative approval this winter but that it is also overwhelmingly supported by voters in two years. Amending Idaho’s Constitution takes both steps – two-thirds support from the Legislature, and then a majority vote of the people at the next election.

Backed up by Republican state Sen. Gerry Sweet of Meridian and former GOP state Rep. Henry Kulczyk, Mansfield said the state Senate maneuvering that kept the issue off last week’s ballot will not be repeated.

“We would have been the 12th state,” Mansfield said. “We expect Idaho will lead the second wave. We believe the Idaho Legislature will stand tall.”

Strategists also believe putting the issue on the 2006 ballot would generate another wave of pro-Republican voters that can run over the state’s Democratic minority like they did this fall. Mansfield said the new campaign committee plans to raise “hundreds of thousands” to press its message about the amendment. He will be a paid consultant to the effort, which Kulczyk will chair.

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb of Burley said Thursday that the proposition, which won the required two-thirds majority in the House with votes to spare last winter, likely would sail through the House again. But it will be up to the Senate to decide the proposition’s fate.

Idaho already outlaws gay marriage. Backers of a constitutional amendment want to repeat that sentiment in the state Constitution, to ensure that the Idaho Supreme Court doesn’t overturn the state law. “Activist judges across the nation have already made rulings,” Sweet said.

Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes predicted that if introduced next winter, the proposal submitting the amendment to voters will come to a vote in the full Senate, a point it never reached last session.

But Geddes is making no predictions beyond that, and critics of any ban believe they still have a chance to round up the 12 votes needed to block the measure’s approval.

“I always hold out for the best in people, and I’ll be working to find that this year,” said state Rep.-elect Nicole LaFavour, D-Boise, the first openly gay person elected to the Idaho Legislature.

Key senators blocked the floor vote last year, arguing that the state already had a 1996 law banning gay marriage. Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson also has said the U.S. Constitution would likely override state laws regulating contracts such as marriage so that any effective ban on gay marriage would have to be at the federal level.

Sweet discounted those arguments and said he thought 70 percent of Idahoans would support his proposition, because support was so strong in other states that passed such measures.

“The nation has sent a clear message,” Sweet said. “We felt this was the time to carry that momentum forward.”

He said the wording of the amendment was still under review but would likely not just ban gay marriage, but deny recognition as a marriage or its legal equivalent to any other relationship even if recognized by other states. That would include civil unions, which have picked up some support among a number of political leaders in Idaho, and domestic partnerships that elderly couples have been increasingly entering.

“It would be our intent to cover the whole gamut,” Sweet said. “That would include covering civil unions.”

It is that possibility that gives ban opponents some optimism. They dispute Sweet’s contention that most people want the ban with statistics of their own, saying 30 percent of Americans support gay marriage and another 30 percent support civil unions.

LaFavour said she believes there is more understanding of gay and lesbian people in Idaho today than there was a decade ago when a proposed ban on laws protecting gays from discrimination was defeated by just 3,100 votes.

“The people of the state of Idaho aren’t crying out for the state to waste its time on this issue,” she said. “I’ll be voting no.”