Group decries Amendment 3

With fewer than 100 days until Nov. 2, the Don't Amend Alliance has launched a new voter education drive it hopes will convince Utah voters that a proposed state constitutional ban on same-sex marriages goes too far.

In an e-mail to supporters Monday, Don't Amend asked recipients to sway one voter a day, to vote against Amendment 3, which would also prohibit granting the "same or substantially equivalent legal effect as marriage" to any union other than marriage.

Utah Eagle Forum president Gayle Ruzicka is scheduled to meet today with the amendment's two sponsors, Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, and Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, to work out some details of a yet unnamed pro-amendment campaign.

"We just haven't felt the pressure to do anything until we get into the last couple of months," Ruzicka said. "Then we'll really be working on it."

Those in favor of the amendment say it's necessary to protect from court challenges the state's existing marriage law, which defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman.

Don't Amend campaign manager Scott McCoy said the amendment would deny basic legal protections to gay and lesbian couples, such as hospital visitation or inheritance.

McCoy said polls by his campaign indicate most Utahns do support traditional marriage, but don't agree with the amendment's second part.

"The more people know about Amendment 3, the more they dislike it," McCoy said. "It's an issue of basic fairness, whether or not we should hurt nontraditional families . . . in order to define this thing called marriage."

He declined to discuss specific results, sample sizes and other details of those polls.

A Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates last month found a majority of Utahns would vote for the amendment.

McCoy said his campaign has identified more than 11,000 supporters so far, and he's convinced Don't Amend will win the votes needed to defeat the amendment.

If this year's turnout matches the last presidential election, Don't Amend will need somewhere around 397,000 voters on its side.

That's based on the 1.134 million people registered to vote in Utah, and the 70 percent turnout in 2000, according to state elections director Amy Naccarato.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com