An Indiana House panel will hold a
hearing on a proposed resolution that seeks to ban gay marriage in
the state.
The House Judiciary Committee will be
hearing from backers and opponents of the resolution starting at
10:30 AM on Monday.
It is Republicans' first attempt to
define marriage as between a man and a woman in the Indiana
Constitution since regaining control of the Legislature in November.
Lawmakers approved a similar measure in
2005. But constitutional amendments must be approved by two separate
Legislatures before heading to the ballot box. In 2006, Democrats
won control of the House and blocked the resolution from moving
forward.
If approved, the amendment would ban
gay marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships and any government
recognition of gay and lesbian couples in the state.
House Representatives P. Eric Turner, a
Republican, and Dave Cheatham, a Democrat, are the primary sponsors
of the measure.
Indiana already bans gay couples from
marrying, but Turner argues that courts could overturn the law.
“If Indiana's definition of marriage
is trashed by activist judges, what stands in the way of other laws
preventing other perversions of accepted Hoosier standards of
decency?” Turner wrote in a 2008 press release. “Once
traditional marriage is felled, arguments against polygamy,
adult-child marriages or even marriages between blood relatives
become bolder.”