When President George W. Bush proposed a constitutionalamendment on Feb. 24, he pushed the issue of same-sex marriage intothe presidential election.
The proposed amendment would define marriage in the UnitedStates as a union between a man and woman.
Congress defeated the bill because it lacked the necessarytwo-thirds majority vote required to send a proposed amendment tothe states for ratification. However, House of RepresentativesMajority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, told the Associated Press thebill was "only the beginning."
< B>BULLET ISSUE FOR VOTERS< B>
In an election that a Newsweek articled declared a dead-heat,voters may rely on certain campaign issues when completing theirballots. For some, the decision between Bush and Senator JohnKerry, D-Mass., may come down to same-sex marriage.
"It's not really fair that straight couples can get married butapparently if you love another man or woman, your invalid in thiscountry," Anita Brown, president of Spectrum, said. Although she isheterosexual, she said the controversy about same-sex marriage is a"no-brainer" because disallowing it would be discrimination.
Junior Aaron Shepherd is just as clear-cut in his opinionconcerning the subject.
"Things like incest, bestiality, pedophilia [and] necrophiliaare all sexually immoral and I think homosexuality is included inthat," Shepherd said.
< B>AMENDMENT TO DISTRACT VOTERS< B>
While both Shepherd and Brown are on opposite sides of thetopic, they both said that Bush's push for Congress to vote on themarriage amendment was more about distracting voters from otherissues than a genuine concern for the sanctity of marriage.
"People who would otherwise be opposed to war are going to votefor him because of his take on gay marriage; abortion could beincluded in that," Shepherd said. "I've argued against Bush a lotand his supporters usually always fall back on gay marriage andabortion."
< B>GAYS MORE LIKELY TO SUPPORT KERRY< B>
Homosexuals are definitely more likely to support Kerry becausehe has said the same-sex marriage decision should be left up to thestates and not forced on them through an amendment, Gary Crawley,assistant professor of political science, said.
But same-sex marriage hasn't gotten much "play" during thecandidate's campaigns, he said.
"I would suspect both candidates are tempted to avoid the issuebecause there's a great deal of uncertainty as to where peoplestand," Crawley said. "You want to have a sense of how voters areresponding on issues, you're not going to push it."
Same-sex marriage isn't the biggest issue facing voters now, headded.
< B>VOTERS FOCUS ON SECURITY< B>
Most voters are focusing on terrorism, the economy and the warin Iraq, Crawley said. There is evidence that voter's shift onwhich topic is most important but it's generally those three issuesor a combination of them, he said, although there will be someundecided voters who could go to other issues like same-sexmarriage.
"[Bush] is just trying to pull another wedge issue to dupe thecountry," Brown said. "[Same-sex marriage] is a side issue. Eversince the war started it shouldn't be that big of a deal."
< B>MARRIAGE LAW STATE ISSUE< B>
If it were up to Crawley to decide the fate of same-sexmarriage, he would leave it up to the states. Marriage law hasalways been a state issue, he said, and that's where he would leaveit.
Overall, same-sex marriage isn't an issue Americans are toopreoccupied with in Crawley's opinion.
"I don't see any ground-swell for the constitutional ban, that'sjust the sense that I have," he said. "People just aren't thatconcerned about it."
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