Arizona Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Appears Dead

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: April 4, 2008 - 3:00 pm ET

(Phoenix, Arizona) It looks as though a proposed amendment to the Arizona state Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage will not make it onto the ballot this November following a testy session in the legislature.

Bills that constitutionally limit would limit marriage to opposite-sex couples were filed earlier this year in both the House and Senate by Republican lawmakers and appeared to have enough support for passage.

But just before the House was to vote Rep. Kyrsten Sinema added a clause to the bill that would grant unmarried couples, both same and opposite-sex, many of the rights of marriage but without the name.

With the amendment in place the House voted 28-27 to give the measure preliminary approval. If it won final approval in both houses with the clause intact it would have gone to voters.

The bill's chief sponsor in the House, Jim Weiers (R), angrily denounced the maneuver saying it made the ban on gay marriage meaningless.

Weirs, through a spokesperson said the Phoenix Republican will drop the whole bill before it goes to a final vote.

The sponsor of the Senate version, Senate President Tim Bee (R) said he now sees no point in a vote in that chamber. Bee said that if the Senate version, which does not have the unmarried couples clause, were to pass there is no indication it would get through the House.

Opponents of same-sex marriage tried but failed in 2006 to get voters to approve a constitutional amendment.

The latest setback for gay-foes angered socially conservative Christian groups.

"We're looking at all options," Ron Johnson, a spokesperson for the Catholic bishops told the Arizona Star. The conservative Center for Arizona Policy said it believes that there could still be a way to resurrect the measure.

But LGBT rights organization Equality Arizona told the paper it believes the issue is now dead.