Eleven states uphold traditional marriage

State constitutional amendments to uphold marriage as the union of a man and a woman easily passed yesterday in all 11 states where it was on the ballot.

Oregon showed the most modest support — 56 percent with two-thirds of precincts reporting — for the amendment. In the other 10 states, the amendments passed by solid margins, ranging from 60 percent in Michigan to 86 percent in Mississippi.

The other states with amendments were Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah.

The amendments are an important statement by the American public, said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

A year ago, a Massachusetts court legalized same-sex “marriage” and threatened to impose same-sex “marriage” on the rest of the nation, he said.

Voters “have spoken up, and they have spoken loudly. And I anticipate through the night that we will see the other states echoing the words of Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana and Missouri. We want to protect marriage,” he said.

“The country overwhelmingly rejects the idea of same-sex marriage,” said 2000 Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who has spoken in support for the amendments. “The votes tonight are going to show that once again.

“Unfortunately,” Mr. Bauer said, “the president was never able to clearly identify with these amendments and more importantly, show how [Sen. John] Kerry was on the side of these amendments. If [President Bush] had done that, it would be a lot shorter election night than it’s probably going to be.”

Homosexual rights groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), have campaigned against the amendments in several states. They made their strongest stand in Oregon, where polls showed the closest race, to try to prevent a sweep.

In Georgia, Kentucky and Ohio alone, 120,000 same-sex couples and their children are “at risk from the anti-gay amendments on marriage,” the NGLTF said this week.

“Of course we’re disappointed that anyone would vote to enshrine discrimination in their state constitutions,” said Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

The amendments passed because Americans haven’t been educated about “gay families and why gay families need the same rights, responsibilities and protections as any family to remain strong,” she said.

Four years ago, Americans probably would have voted against civil unions, but today most support civil unions, said Ms. Jacques, who “married” her partner this summer in Massachusetts.

“That’s because a tremendous amount of education and enlightenment [about civil unions] has taken place.”

Close to one-fifth of America’s voters had a chance to vote on a marriage amendment yesterday.

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