Massachusetts tackles gay marriage again; courts OK ban in two states

Published: 2006-07-07

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As the Massachusetts legislature prepared to consider a proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the highest courts in two other states upheld the ban on same-sex marriage in their jurisdictions. The decisions of the New York state Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Georgia both were handed down July 6, less than a week before the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as the legislature is formally known, was to vote on whether to put the question of same-sex marriage on the 2008 ballot. Massachusetts is the only U.S. state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The heads of the four Catholic dioceses of Massachusetts in a joint statement asked the legislature to vote July 12 in favor of placing the question on the ballot, "so that the people ultimately can exercise their right to vote on such a crucial social and moral issue in 2008."

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