America could do well by following Utah's moral standards, the sponsor of an amendment to the Utah Constitution that would ban same-sex marriages said Tuesday morning just before the Utah House passed his resolution.

Rep. LaVar Christensen's HJR25 now goes to the Senate, where it is also expected to pass.

If so, come November Utah voters would decide whether to define marriage in the state's highest law as between "a man and a woman." Constitutional amendments do not go to the governor for her consideration.

Coincidentally, just before Christensen held out Utah as a national standard, President Bush announced his support for a similar amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

A recent Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows that 65 percent of Utahns favor changing the state constitution to clearly define marriage and outlaw same-sex marriages.

Christensen's proposal is the second this session that would ban gay marriage. A Senate bill that would put the ban in statute, not the Utah Constitution, has passed both houses and is on Gov. Olene Walker's desk.

The emotion generated by the marriage issue continued in Tuesday's debate as Rep. Dave Ure, R-Kamas, teared up and had to stop speaking as he read from the U.S. Constitution.

Rep. Jackie Biskupski, D-Salt Lake, the only openly gay lawmaker in the 104-member Legislature, said the debate is not really about constitutional law, or even equal rights. "It is about 'those people,' " she said, referring to gay Americans and gay Utahns.

"We want to make judgments about a group of Utahns and pass those judgments now into our constitution. It is not between gay and straight. It is between justice and injustice," Biskupski said. "This (amendment) goes far beyond a different marriage — it limits the security of some (gay and lesbian) families that we have now and will continue to have."

HJR25 passed 56-16, with 15 of the "no" votes coming from Democrats; one Republican, Rep. Morgan Philpot, of Sandy, voted "no."

Philpot, a noted conservative, said he voted against it for several reasons, such as: the resolution did not get full debate or study and was probably put in the wrong section of the constitution. Also, he said, "I thought of my good friend, who is gay, and I didn't know how I could explain a 'yes' vote to him."

It takes 50 votes to pass a constitutional amendment in the House, 20 in the Senate.

The amendment's future was not really in doubt. Most representatives are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has taken a stand against same-sex marriages.

Religion and constitutional law was interwoven in the debate Tuesday.