Thought Theater

House Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Amendment genre: Gaylingual & Polispeak

In standard election year form, the Republican Party has now completed its effort to use the issue of same-sex marriage to energize their base. The House vote fell 47 votes shy of the number needed to move the constitutional amendment forward. Bloomberg.com has the full article here.

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, six weeks after the same Republican-led election-year effort failed in the Senate.

The House voted 236-187, 47 votes short of the 283 required to endorse adding a provision to the Constitution defining marriage as only "the union of a man and a woman.''

Republicans said the proposal is necessary to stop judges from redefining marriage, contributing to the destruction of traditional societal values. Democrats said Republicans pushed the proposal to rally their supporters before the November congressional elections.

Should anyone doubt that politicians spend more time on appealing to voters than on real issues that impact the lives of most Americans, we have now completed a period of dealing with same-sex marriage, flag burning, and internet gambling to name a few. In the meantime we have a Middle East in crisis, high gas prices, spiraling national debt, and an Iraq war than seems to be endless. Nonetheless, I feel better because I would hate to think that those on the religious right might see their marriages fail under the overwhelming impact of the militant homosexual agenda.