RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) ? North Carolina's House of Representatives voted on Monday to put a proposed constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage before voters in a statewide ballot next May.
North Carolina already has a statute that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman but is the only state in the South that has yet to make a ban on same-sex marriage part of the state constitution.
The Republican-led effort to put the proposed amendment before voters succeeded in the House with a 75-42 vote after hours of debate, reaching a required three-fifths threshold with the help of votes from 10 Democrats.
The so-called "Marriage Defense Bill" now moves to the state Senate where Republicans have a comfortable majority to reach the threshold.
Another 30 states have already approved such amendments, while six states and Washington, D.C., allow same-sex couples to marry.
Democrats and gay rights advocates want to keep the proposal off the ballot, saying it was a step back for a state that had distinguished itself as the lone Southern state without a same-sex marriage ban in its constitution.
"This is all about someone is different and therefore you will be treated differently," Marcus Brandon, a Democratic representative from High-Point and Greensboro, said during debate on the issue. He is first openly gay African-American man elected to the state General Assembly.
Equality North Carolina, a gay rights group that opposes the measure, sponsored candlelight vigils statewide on Monday night and planned to hold a rally outside the Legislative Building on Tuesday.
Republicans pushed the vote through quickly on the first day of a special session, catching Democrats and gay rights advocates off guard. The 6 p.m. vote followed more than three hours of debate in which Republicans spoke sparingly.
Representative Joe Hackey, the House Minority Leader, attacked the bill as hastily drafted and inadequately reviewed through public hearing.
"The procedure being used for this bill does this House no honor," Hackney said.
SOCIAL INSTITUTION
Republican leaders said the proposed amendment was not about discrimination, but about defending a fundamental social institution. Majority Leader Leader Paul Stam said that an amendment would help protect the existing North Carolina law on the issue from being overturned in court.
Representative Dale Folwell, a Republican from Winston-Salem, said putting the matter before voters would end arguments about whether the state should allow gay marriage.
"Every year people campaign about this issue. It's time that we settle it," Folwell said.
Republicans had made changes in the legislation to clarify that it would not bar businesses from extending benefits to the domestic partners of employees.
Many Democrats had voted for the 1996 state law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. But now many of them say attitudes toward gay rights have changed toward tolerance, and gays should be allowed to marry.
Every state that has put a state constitutional amendment defining marriage on the ballot has seen it approved, according to the North Carolina Family Policy Council.
A poll released last week by the Democratic-leaning polling firm Public Policy Polling found what the company called a "complicated" view toward gay marriage in North Carolina.
The survey showed 61 percent of North Carolinians thought gay marriage should be illegal, while 31 percent thought it should be legal.
But that opposition appeared to stop short of favoring an amendment to the state constitution. Asked how they would vote if the election were held today, voters said they would reject the proposed amendment by a 55-to-30 margin.
PPP said that apparent contradiction may reflect the fact that 54 percent of North Carolinians support legally recognizing gay couples, but most do not want the word "marriage" used in that recognition.
(Edited by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Johnston)
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