Nevadans split on same-sex marriage ban vote

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 10:51 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators agree that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, but voted differently today on the effort to amend the U.S. Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.

A procedural measure today that would have allowed the proposed constitutional amendment to move forward failed 48-50. The measure needed 60 votes to pass, and the amendment itself would need 67 votes to pass, as required by the constitution.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., voted against moving the amendment forward because Republicans wanted to add other provisions to the bill that had nothing to do with same-sex marriage, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Reid is against same-sex marriage but doesn't want to amend the Constitution.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., wants to amend the Constitution and voted to move forward with the debate, spokesman Jack Finn said.

"Marriage, as a social institution, predates every other institution on which ordered society in America, and the world as a whole, has relied including even the church itself," Ensign said Tuesday on the Senate floor.

Ensign objected to courts and local governments that have allowed marriages of gay couples to take place and wants a federal recognition of marriage.

"In the end, for a healthy society, we need to have a tolerant society but also a society which strives for the ideal," Ensign said. "That ideal is for children to be raised by one father and one mother bonded by the institution of marriage."

Reid still opposes same-sex marriage but did not approve of the way the Republican leadership was handling the amendment and called it "election-year politics meant to divide us."

"I believe in the sanctity of marriage, and I believe in the sanctity of our Constitution," Reid said in a statement. "I have voted both as a citizen and on the floor of the Senate to protect traditional marriage. ...

"Before we tinker with our most cherished rights, we should allow the states to deal with this issue, as Nevadans already have."

Reid voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, a law approved in 1996 that denied federal recognition of same-sex marriages and allows states to refuse recognition of same-sex marriages licensed in other states.

Reid also voted for Nevada's Question 2, the state initiative that defined marriage in the state as only between a man and a woman, Hafen said.