The House Tuesday approved the amended version of HJR-3, the proposed constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage.
The House voted Monday to alter HJR-3, taking out the measure’s controversial second sentence banning civil unions. That version of the amendment passed the House by a comfortable margin Tuesday, 57 to 40.
The change also restarts the ratification process, potentially putting it on the ballot in 2016, instead of this fall.
House Minority Leader Scott Pelath says simply removing the second sentence isn’t enough:
“Fact is, we have not dismantled this bomb,” Pelath said. “We’ve simply placed a longer fuse on it before it detonates in all of our faces.”
Cicero Republican Representative Eric Turner, the measure’s author, says even without the second sentence, HJR-3 is necessary to protect the state’s existing statute defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
“We know from experience that states without constitutional protection run the risk of a state court changing the will of the people, the will of the legislature,” Turner said.
The amended version of HJR-3 now heads to the Senate, where the second sentence could be reinserted.
