Senate Rejects Constitutional Amendment Banning Gay Marriage

By Linda Orlando

Republicans and conservatives were dealt a blow they had expected, when the Senate voted against adopting a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Supporters of the amendment had expected not to receive the 2/3 vote needed to pass the measure, but they had predicted to win a majority of votes. However, the proposal received one less vote than it did the last time the Senate voted on it in 2004. Wednesday’s vote of 49-48, while close, fell 11 votes short of the 60 required to send the matter for an up-or-down tally in the Senate.

Supporters of the measure lost three key "yes" votes when two Republicans (Sen. Gregg of New Hampshire and Pennsylvania’s Sen. Arlen Specter) changed their votes from yes in 2004 to no this time, and a third (Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska) did not vote because he was on the road traveling with President Bush. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, one of the amendment’s supporters, said that the vote results were not surprising but they will not affect the growing support for having the matter legally defined. "Eventually, Congress is going to have to catch up to the wisdom of the American people or the American people will change Congress for the better," he told reporters.

According to a poll by ABC News that was released this week, a majority of Americans define marriage as a union of a man and a woman, but a majority also opposes amending the Constitution to say so. Sen. John McCain, who voted no to the amendment, said that "most Americans are not yet convinced that their elected representatives or the judiciary are likely to expand decisively the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples." McCain is a possible presidential candidate for 2008.

Nonetheless, conservative backers say they are pleased to have had the vote despite its defeat. "For thousands of years, marriage—the union between a man and a woman—has been recognized as an essential cornerstone of society," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. "We must continue fighting to ensure the Constitution is amended by the will of the people rather than by judicial activism." Sen. Sam Brownback echoed Frist’s sentiments by adding, "We’re not going to stop until marriage between a man and a woman is protected."

The amendment was defeated despite daily appeals for its passage by President Bush, and in spite of a strongly delivered message from the Vatican on Tuesday, which named gay marriage as one of the factors posing a grave threat to the traditional family. Although Republicans had hoped for a better showing in the Senate, supporters are not discouraged by the vote, and the House is planning its own redux next month, said Majority Leader John Boehner. "This is an issue that is of significant importance to many Americans," Boehner told reporters. "We have significant numbers of our members who want a vote on this, so we are going to have a vote."

Out of the 50 states in the United States, an overwhelming majority—45 states—have enacted legislation to define traditional marriage in ways that would ban same-sex marriage. Nineteen states have passed constitutional amendments and 26 have approved statutes. So the Senate’s defeat of a federal Constitutional amendment has many supporters of the idea scratching their heads and wondering why politicians elected by the people are not working for the people who elected them.