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National
Q-NOTES • MARCH 13 . 2004
House to begin Federal
Marriage Amendment debate
Anti-gay amendment would be first
in history to extend discnrnination
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House
Constitution subcommittee is preparing to
hold hearings on legislation to amend the
U.S. Constitution to block same-sex mar
riage. The announcement comes just one
day after the parallel subcommittee in the
Senate began its own hearings.
“The people and their elected represen
tatives — and not a handful of rogue
judges and officials — should have the
right to make decisions regarding marriage
policy,” said House subcommittee chair
Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH).
Chabot said the growing number of
cities allowing gay and lesbian couples to
marry has become an epidemic that must
be stopped.
Standing beside James Sensenbrenner
(R-WI) the powerful chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, Chabot insist
ed that politics played no role in the
announcement, it is a position strongly
denounced by Democrats.
“The Constitution should not be used
as a political tool by George W. Bush,”
declared Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-
NY), the Ranking Democrat on the sub
committee on the Constitution.
“The proposed amendment would, for the
first time in our nation’s history, change the
Constitution to deny, rather than to expand.
the civil rights of a large number of Americans.
Congress should reject the president’s election
year call to undermine this country’s historic
commitment to the guarantee of equal pro
tection under the law for all Americans.”
The first hearing on the Defense of
Marriage Act will be Mar. 30.
President Bush has endorsed amending
the Constitution to ban gay marriage.
Democratic presidential contender Sen. John
Kerry says he would extend all the rights,
privileges and obligations of marriage on
same-sex couples but not call it marriage.
This article previously appeared on 365gay.com.