Same-sex marriage ban clears House

BOISE – A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and prohibiting people in domestic unions from sharing the rights of married couples passed the House of Representatives 53-17 on Monday after an hour and a half of passionate debate.

State law already prohibits same-sex marriage; the amendment is an attempt to reinforce the law, said its sponsor, House Majority Leader Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale.

“There are challenges going on all over the country to laws just like ours,” Denney said. “It’s now time for Idaho to act.”

The amendment goes to a Senate committee that must approve it before the full Senate can vote. Like the House, the Senate must approve the amendment with a two-thirds majority for it to be placed on the November ballot.

A similar amendment died in the Senate last year, and membership remains largely unchanged.

If the amendment fails to get two-thirds approval from the Senate, Denney and supporters have drafted an advisory vote measure that he said is worded exactly like the amendment.

Advisory votes require only majority approval from the Senate and House to go on the ballot, but the results of the vote are not binding. In an advisory vote in 1998 on whether to repeal term limits, a majority favored keeping them, but the Legislature repealed them anyway.

Prior to the vote on HJR 2, Rep. Nicole LeFavour, a Democrat from Boise and the Legislature’s only openly gay member, urged her colleagues to vote against the amendment despite the political pressures they may face at home.

“Many of you have come to me and apologized for your intent to vote yes on this amendment,” LeFavour said. “I would ask … that you consider instead making that apology to those people in your districts who will be directly impacted.”

Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, voted for the amendment because of what he said is an increase in activist judges pushing their political views through their decisions.

“In my district I have had enough judicial activism on every issue that comes across the board,” Anderson said.

Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, spoke against the amendment, asking where the evidence was that gay people threaten heterosexual marriage. She warned her colleagues to refrain from letting their religious views guide their legislative efforts.

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, also spoke against the amendment, emphasizing the importance of respecting the Bill of Rights.

“Those rights are inherent; they do not come from government. The government does not give them to us. Therefore, they may not take them away,” Sayler said.

Rep. Joe Cannon, R-Blackfoot, said his vote for the amendment is not a vote for discrimination; it’s a vote to help a society that is slipping into sexual deviancy.

The Legislature should encourage married couples to stay together, Cannon said, not to say, “I can’t get along with my husband or can’t get along with my wife; I can get along with my college roommate better – well, maybe that’s my sexual preference.”

“In my mind, that is not healthy,” he said. “They will be unhappy.”

Five Republicans joined the House’s 12 Democrats in voting against the amendment.