The Indiana Senate on Tuesday
overwhelmingly agreed to amend the state's constitution to ban gay
marriage, the AP reported.
Three Democrats crossed the aisle to
join all 37 Republicans in a 40 to 10 vote.
The proposed amendment would define
marriage as a heterosexual union, and outlaw gay marriage, civil
unions and possibly domestic partnerships.
The Republican-controlled House
approved the measure with a lopsided 70-26 vote late last month.
Before going to the ballot box,
however, a second separately elected General Assembly must approve
the resolution, making 2014 the earliest voters could act.
The measure was sponsored in the Senate
by Republican Senator Dennis Kruse, who said the amendment was needed
to affirm “that marriage is and should be the union of one man and
one woman.”
During a House hearing last month,
Micah Clark of the Christian conservative American Family Association
of Indiana testified that the state's law banning gay marriage
remained vulnerable to a legal challenge.
“Two-thirds of the states have
amended their constitutions because of the legal challenges that have
occurred,” Clark said. “For example, Iowa had a law similar to
ours [and then] had same-sex marriages forced on them by the courts.”
However, Indiana courts have already
declared the state's law constitutional.