Arizona conservatives launch campaign against same-sex marriage

Arizona conservatives are making good on their threats to launch a petition campaign to put a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to a statewide vote. Last year opponents of same-sex marriage tried to pressure lawmakers to pass legislation putting the proposed ban before voters. But in January, Center for Arizona Policy president Len Munsil announced the group was giving up that plan because--he said--media reports had "marginalized" the issue as a partisan political football. Instead, opponents said they would take the question directly to voters through the initiative process. And on Monday they filed their petition with state officials. They'll need to gather more than 183,000 signatures to get the amendment on the 2006 ballot. Last month Arizona lawmakers approved a nonbinding resolution calling on Congress to pass a federal constitutional amendment restricting marriage to heterosexuals. (Advocate/OutQ News)