GOP Lawmakers Offer Bill to Restrict Gay Marriages

WASHINGTON —  A group of Republican lawmakers, claiming a need to defend the institution of marriage against erosion by gay activists, proposed legislation Wednesday to bar the federal government from honoring homosexual unions and limit the legal impact of a court decision sanctioning gay marriages in Hawaii.

Unveiling the Defense of Marriage Act, Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.) said the institutions of family and marriage “have been under frontal assault for years.” He suggested that broad recognition of homosexual marriages “may eventually be the final blow to the American family.”

The bill also ensures that states would not be forced to treat same-sex unions on a par with traditional marriages. If the bill passes, a state Legislature could act affirmatively to recognize same-sex unions.

Supporters said that House leaders probably would bring the bill to a vote this summer. While Senate action on the bill is harder to predict, Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) supports the measure.

If adopted, it would enshrine in federal law a definition of marriage as a union between a single man and a single woman. It would frustrate gay and lesbian couples who want the legal benefits of state and federal recognition, including Social Security and veterans’ benefits for surviving spouses and recognition as next-of-kin for medical and inheritance purposes.

The bill is one of several measures touted as “family values” legislation that conservative Republicans expect to push over the next several months. Conservatives hope that the bills, which include a parental rights act and a bill relaxing bars on state aid to religious institutions, will be embraced by Dole and adopted as part of the Republican platform.

The marriage bill addresses concerns by religious conservative groups that a decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court could force other states to honor homosexual marriages in Hawaii. Under current law, states are obliged to recognize marriages performed legally in other states.

“Most Americans will have a hard time understanding how our country has come to the point where such simple terms as ‘marriage’ and ‘spouse’ need to be defined in federal law,” Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.)said. “But under challenge from courts, lawsuits and an erosion of values, we find ourselves at the point today that this legislation is needed.”

But Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), said the bill is not necessary. “I think that each state has decided those kind of issues since the Republic began. And I don’t see any reason to rush out right now and decide we’re going to take this away from the states,” she said on CBS-TV’s “This Morning.”

Gay and lesbian groups say the measure is a product of “political-religious extremist groups” and would “codify unprecedented, federal-level blanket discrimination against lesbian and gay couples.”

Hawaii’s Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that denying a marriage license to a gay couple would violate the equal rights clause of the state’s constitution. The court returned the case to a lower court with instructions to find a compelling reason to justify discrimination. If it fails to do so, the state Supreme Court’s ruling would govern marriages in the state.