Senate OKs bill defining marriage

Senate Republicans rejected an effort to include a message to polygamists in a controversial marriage law bill and passed it Friday with only four dissenting votes.

An amendment from Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley, which would have declared marriage as "between one man and one woman" instead of "a man and a woman" failed, 19-9, primarily because of fears from the Republican majority that the amendment would have potentially made it more difficult to defend in court.

Mayne had hoped that the amendment to SB24 would deliver the same message to polygamists that it is sending to homosexuals.

"This is a very key component of the definition and the policy we're doing right here," Mayne said. "This body should be very strong and forceful in its condemnation. Anything less is playing into polygamy in the state."

Senate Majority Whip John Valentine, R-Orem, said that the amendment would make no difference because legal counsel had already said that in legal terms, "a" is the same as "one."

"Nobody wants to foster polygamy in this body," he said. "When you're dealing with something like this, changing even one word may have made it more vulnerable."

Instead, Valentine suggested that if further legal review showed that it wouldn't hurt the legal strength of the current bill, then it could be amended in the House.

Sen. Gregory Bell, R-Farmington, accused Democrats of attempting to change the focus of the marriage debate. After all, polygamy is already banned in the state Constitution.

"This amendment addresses an issue that is not relevant, not germane to what we're talking about," Bell said. "It is a trick."

Yet if sending a clear statement about the nature of marriage is the actual goal of this bill, then the message should be sent to anyone who would attempt to live outside of the traditional marriage, Sen. Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park, said. Otherwise, the bill falls short.

"We don't allow same-sex marriages in Utah," Allen said. "I thought the intention was to reinforce our views of marriage, and using that argument, we need to include this statement" against polygamy.

The bill now moves to the House of Representatives, where gay rights advocates said that they expected to continue fighting the bill. As during Senate committee hearings, opponents will focus on how the bill is vulnerable to costly legal challenges and on its negative impact on gay and lesbian families.

"We're going to fight SB24 all of the way," Equality Utah Executive Director Michael Mitchell said. "This is still a bad bill for gay and lesbian families, and a bad bill for Utah."

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