Maine rejects marriage amendment

The Maine senate on Tuesday morning narrowly rejected a proposal to ban same-sex marriages. On a 17-16 vote, senators defeated a measure requiring the legislature's judiciary committee to develop a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. The house last month killed a similar order. Before the senate vote, a few hundred activists opposed to gay marriage held a rally on the front steps of the statehouse. The Christian Civic League of Maine showed up to voice its support for the amendment. The evangelical group's executive director, Michael Heath, acknowledged that Tuesday's vote was largely symbolic since the measure had already been defeated in the house. Heath said he saw the vote as the start of a movement called "Coalition for Marriage." The Maine Lesbian-Gay Political Alliance says the defeated amendment was written in hateful language that would have denied basic rights to committed gay couples.