Gov. Deval
Patrick warned Thursday that Massachusetts will be crippled
by a ''political circus'' if a proposed constitutional
amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the only U.S.
state that currently allows it makes it to a statewide
vote.
The Democratic
governor, speaking to reporters in Boston a day after
lawmakers delayed a vote on the proposed amendment, said he
was actively lobbying legislators to kill the
amendment.
''If this does
get to a popular ballot, there is very little other
business that will get done in Massachusetts politics and
policy making while that is pending,'' Patrick said.
The proposed
amendment declares marriage to be a union between only a man
and a woman and needs the backing of 25%--or at least
50 lawmakers--in two successive sittings of the
legislature to make the 2008 ballot. About 57
lawmakers support the amendment, advocates on both sides of
the issue agree.
The Massachusetts
supreme judicial court ruled in 2003 that the state
constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry. A
few other U.S. states offer civil unions with similar
rights for gay couples, but only Massachusetts allows
same-sex marriage.
The proposed
amendment to ban same-sex marriage was approved in January
by the previous legislature. If it makes it onto the ballot
and residents approve it, the amendment would leave
Massachusetts's existing same-sex marriages intact but
ban any new ones.
Lawmakers on
Wednesday postponed a vote until at least June 14.
''Rather than
turn Massachusetts into a political circus for a national
debate over something which is largely settled here, my own
view is that we ought to resolve this on the merits so
that it stays off the ballot, and to do so at the
constitutional convention,'' Patrick said.
Kris Mineau,
president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which
collected more than 120,000 signatures in support of the
amendment, called Patrick's comments ''over the top.''
''I can't imagine
having a ballot question that would turn the state into
a circus and have lawmakers unable to do their job,'' he
said.
Last fall, eight
states voted on amendments to ban same-sex marriage:
Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,
Virginia, and Wisconsin approved them. Arizona bucked
the national trend by refusing to change its
constitution to define marriage as a one-man, one-woman
institution.
Similar
amendments had passed previously in all 20 states to
consider them.
Mineau said
lawmakers opposing same-sex marriage were ''very solid'' in
their position.
''We're very
confident that the votes will hold,'' he said.
But Patrick said
he would keep lobbying.
''We're working
very hard to make the case to members in both houses that
the ballot initiative ought not to be used as a means to
take away people's civil rights,'' the governor said.
(Ken Maguire, AP)