Pa. House Stalls
Marriage Ban Amendment

The Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania house of representatives has thwarted an effort to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. State senator Michael Brubaker, who is the main sponsor of the senate version of the bill, asked the Republican-majority senate to table the bill indefinitely, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Wednesday.

Brubaker said that he is not abandoning the bill, but is not sure when he will push for it again.

The proposed constitutional amendment passed the senate appropriations committee and the judiciary committee, but its next stop would be the house state government committee, chaired by Democrat Babette Josephs. In 2005, Josephs strongly opposed another proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. At a rally on Monday, Josephs said that Brubaker's bill is "discriminatory, disgraceful, morally wrong, and unnecessary," according to the Post-Gazette.

Brubaker defended his bill, saying it would enforce long-held tradition of heterosexual marriage.

"I have a healthy respect for the homosexual community," he said in the article. "I have a healthy respect for heterosexuals. I have a deep respect for the institution of marriage. I am standing for marriage. I am not standing against any individual sector of our society."

To amend the constitution, the same bill must be approved in two different legislative sessions and then by a statewide referendum. (The Advocate)