Gay marriage ban may go constitutional

BOISE – Legislation to amend Idaho’s constitution to define marriage as being between a man and woman was introduced by a House committee Monday on an 11-4 vote.

“I think that this is a fundamental issue that’s too great for us to decide alone,” said House Majority Leader Rep. Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, who sponsored the proposal with other legislative leaders.

The proposal will be on the November ballot if the Senate and House each approve it with a two-thirds majority. The House State Affairs Committee first will hold a hearing and vote on whether to send the bill to the full House.

A similar bill died in the Senate during the previous legislative session.

Rep. Anne Pasley-Stuart, D-Boise, asked for a roll-call vote so there would be a record of how committee members voted. She voted against the bill, along with Reps. Bob Ring, R-Caldwell; Elaine Smith, D-Pocatello; and Janet Miller, R-Boise.

“It’s discriminatory against gay people,” Pasley-Stuart said. “Once you discriminate against any group of people, you discriminate against all of us, and to put it into the Constitution of the state of Idaho is unconscionable.”

Ring echoed Pasley-Stuart’s comments. “I’m for heterosexual marriage – I’ve been happily married for 43 years – but I just dislike putting things into the Constitution based on prejudice and putting people down just because you have the political power to do so,” he said.

Miller voted against introducing the bill for other reasons.

“My feeling is, why waste the paper?” Miller said. “We already have a law on the books that defines marriage.”

Idaho passed a law in 1996 that prohibits same-sex couples from marrying.

“We shouldn’t be spending our time on things like that with all the vital issues that we have in the state,” Miller added.

Rep. Mary Lou Shepherd, D-Prichard, said she voted in favor of introducing the bill because that’s what her constituents want. She said she heard from people around the state about the issue, and though many urged her to vote against it, they weren’t from her district.

“I always vote for my district,” Shepherd said.

But Pasley-Stuart said passing anti-gay bills will hurt not only the people of Idaho but also the business climate in the state because many major companies support gay rights and might be wary of setting up shop in a state that doesn’t. “Idaho has a reputation for being racist, anyway,” she said.

A gay rights bill was introduced in the Washington Legislature earlier this month, and more than 1,000 people attended a recent rally in Olympia to support the bill, which would prohibit discrimination in housing, employment and other areas based on sexual orientation.

The Washington bill passed the House 60-37 on Friday. The first Senate hearing was held Monday.