The Indiana House on Tuesday approved a
resolution that aims to ban gay marriage in the state with a
constitutional amendment, the AP reported.
Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the
measure with a 70-26 vote after 30 minutes of debate.
“The basic unit of society is the
family, and the cornerstone of the family is marriage,” the bill's
author, Republican Rep. Eric Turner, said. “Marriage is, and
should be, the union of one man and one woman.”
Representative David Cheatham, a
Democrat and a co-sponsor of the bill, said he wanted to give voters
the right to decide the issue: “We simply offer that question to
the people. We don't decide that. The people decide that.”
The measure now heads to the Senate,
which has approved similar measures in the past. But voters won't
see the issue until 2014 at the earliest, after a separately-elected
General Assembly approves the resolution.
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to
Marry, which
on Monday launched a $10 million gay marriage campaign, urged the
Indiana Senate to reject the measure.
“Government should be on the side of
all families, not putting barriers in their paths as they seek to
care for their loved ones,” Wolfson said in a statement.
“Constitutions should be respected as
shields of fairness for all, not used as weapons to discriminate and
harm. Indiana's legislators should resoundingly reject this assault
on the constitution and families,” he added.