After banning same-sex marriage, Ohio now looks at "covenant" marriage

Religious conservatives who succeeded in rewriting Ohio's constitution to ban same-sex marriage are pushing state lawmakers to make divorce more difficult and to bar gay people from becoming foster or adoptive parents. The issues were priorities listed in a lobbying day by several groups last month. "The conservative Christian community feels more empowered today than in the recent past," said state senator Jay Hottinger, who introduced a bill creating "covenant marriage" last week. "The momentum they sense they have, they want to make certain it doesn't go away." Ohio's state law banning same-sex marriage took effect a year ago. Its supporters say it was overshadowed by the even stronger constitutional amendment passed in November that bans civil unions for same- or opposite-sex couples. The new covenant marriage bill says couples who want such a marriage must go through counseling and sign a contract saying they understand they would have to go through a yearlong "cooling off" period with counseling before getting a divorce in most cases. The idea was inspired during the same-sex marriage debate, supporters said. Hottinger, a Newark Republican, said problems with traditional marriage were among the chief arguments from opponents of both the law and amendment. "Homosexuals said you haven't done a good job with marriage," said Chris Long, executive director of the Christian Coalition of Ohio. "Some of the things we're looking at are: What can we do to help marriage and families today?" Three other states have covenant marriages, Hottinger said. His bill would apply to engaged couples and those who want to reclassify their existing marriage. Opponents of the same-sex marriage ban dislike the idea. The covenant marriage bill still allows divorce without a waiting period if there is adultery or abuse, but the abused partner would have to prove the abuse in court--the same situation that existed before no-fault divorce, said Tim Downing, president of Ohioans for Growth and Equality, an equal-rights lobbying group focusing on gay issues. "It's a dressed-up bill to once again give women second-class status and to force women to be subservient to their husbands," he said. Hottinger emphasized that the agreement is voluntary. "This does not prevent individuals from being able to get a divorce," he said. The effort to bar gay people from adopting or becoming foster parents hasn't gotten as far. Greg Quinlan, president of the Ohio-based Pro-Family Network, has proposed the idea to state representative Tim Schaffer, a Lancaster Republican whose office says he's still studying the issue. A bill barring gays from becoming foster parents passed the Texas house, and a similar bill is pending in Tennessee. "It certainly helps our case in Ohio to have other states who have done or are doing it," said Quinlan, who describes himself as a former homosexual. Downing said barring gays from adopting and foster parenting would drive people and businesses away from Ohio. State representative Bill Seitz, who sponsored the same-sex marriage law but said the constitutional amendment was too vaguely worded, said he supports covenant marriage because it's voluntary. But he's "not too wild about" the adoption ban. "To categorically say that children who may need to be adopted cannot be adopted by an unmarried person or a same-sex couple, I think is probably going farther than we need to go until all the kids who need to get adopted [do] get adopted," he said. (AP)