By Jennifer Davis Rash
The Alabama Baptist
Same-sex “marriages” are now witnessed daily as San Francisco officials are granting “marriage” licenses by the hundreds.
This is one reason Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, believes it is vital that Alabama pass a ban on same-sex “marriage” immediately. “We must take a stand,” said Allen, a member of Gilgal Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa.
House Bill (HB) 94 is poised to offer a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex “marriages,” but one problem exists — a 2006 vote of the people, said ALCAP’s Dan Ireland. The bill, sponsored by Yusuf Salaam, D-Selma, would protect Alabama’s current civil law, known as the Alabama Marriage Protection Act, implemented in 1998.
The marriage protection act defines marriage as “inherently a unique relationship between a man and woman” and under HB 94 those words would become part of the state constitution.
HB 94 also prohibits recognizing same-sex “marriages” from other states.
Civil law can be changed by the Legislature or challenged in court, Allen and Ireland explained. But a constitutional amendment requires two-thirds vote of both the House and the Senate and a vote of the people to be changed.
House Majority Leader Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, chairs the Constitution and Elections Committee of which HB 94 was reported out.
Date debated
Guin said any challenge to the current marriage law would take longer than waiting for the 2006 primary election. “There is absolutely no threat right now of what is happening in California.”
Guin said scheduling the vote for the next available primary following the Legislature’s adjournment prevents the vote from becoming a partisan issue.
But Ireland wants a Nov. 2 vote.
That is the next general election and “most ballot bills are brought up at the next general election,” Ireland said.
Allen added, “We do not understand why the people of this state should not be given the earliest possibility to express their wishes.”
House Speaker Seth Hammett said he supports amending the date to Nov. 2. “I’m interested in this bill being put in front of the people as soon as possible,” he said. “This is a matter of the moral values of our country. The family unit is between a man and a woman.”
Hammett predicts the bill will be overwhelmingly supported.
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