Vote on gay unions stirs debate
Brian Wheeler, Ann Arbor News from the Web, October 23, 2004
Jackson's Human Relations Commission is going on record against Proposal 2, the ballot measure next month that would rewrite the state constitution to ban gay marriage.
The group Wednesday stepped into the volatile debate by voting 5-3 to urge city, county, state and federal officials not to "legislate discrimination" into the state or federal constitutions.
The statement refers specifically to Proposal 2, which it calls "extreme, misleading and discriminatory towards valuable community members."
"The basic premise of the commission is to deal with discrimination," said commission Chairman Will Riley.
"This is too big an issue for us to remain silent."
Michigan is one of 11 states in which voters will decide gay marriage at the polls Nov. 2, and the issue -- fueled by efforts to allow same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts and elsewhere -- has proved a potent one.
The split within the Human Relations Commission reflects a broader divide, with opponents saying society needs to reaffirm marriage as a heterosexual institution.
"It's important to keep the institution of marriage as between one man and one woman, the way God intended it to be," said John Hoffius, a Michigan Center resident who collected signatures locally to put the item on the ballot.
"Anything that takes away from that affects society."
The City Council isn't likely to join the Human Relations Commission in taking a stand on the proposal.
The council will meet Tuesday and is supposed to only accept the commission's report.
Still, the debate is rearing its head elsewhere. State House candidate Rick Baxter has trumpeted his support for the proposal, and last year he sponsored a resolution in which the Jackson County commission opposed gay marriage.
"When you start to compromise an institution or what marriage means, in changing it you redefine it," said Baxter, a Republican from Hanover.
"We're just trying to solidify it."
Jackson Mayor Martin Griffin, his opponent, sides with those who say the issue is a distraction meant only to inflame passions.
"I don't support gay marriage, but it's already illegal," Griffin said. "This is another distraction from the real issues."
Backers and foes disagree not only over the need for a constitutional amendment, but over its impact.
The Human Relations Commission resolution warned of the impact on civil unions or even heterosexual couples.
Opponents say "enshrining" a definition of marriage in the constitution would legalize discrimination and rescind existing benefits.
Society is "rightly concerned about marriages, they're difficult to sustain," said the Rev. Joe Summers, of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Pittsfield Township near Ann Arbor.
But the ballot proposal represents "the scapegoating of gay and lesbian families," he says.
Supporters say the 32-word measure intends only to limit marriage to a man and a woman.
Gary Glenn, president of American Family Association of Michigan, calls talk of the broader impact a "scare tactic" and insists public and private employers could continue to offer domestic-partnership benefits if they want to.
He points to a recent statement from University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman:
"We do not believe that a state constitutional amendment regarding the definition of marriage would be relevant to our decisions about the benefits we offer to any of our employees and their dependents.
If we are challenged, we will vigorously defend our right to offer such benefits."
A review by the nonpartisan, Livonia-based Citizens Research Council of Michigan found the legal implications of the amendment to be "a question for judicial interpretation."
Churches locally and statewide are playing a large role in the battle. The proposal's biggest backer has been the Roman Catholic Church, which has contributed at least $600,000 to the campaign. Hoffius said he has been busy distributing information to churches.
The Rev. Thomas Ramundo, pastor of Jackson Free Methodist Church, said he supports banning gay marriage simply on moral and Biblical grounds.
The church Sunday will host Glenn.
Ramundo, who sits on the city Human Relations Commission and voted against Wednesday's resolution, said he is bothered by the effort by many to frame gay marriage as a legal right that's now denied.
"It's based on the false assumption that homosexuality is the same thing as race," he said.
Many gay couples, predictably, will vote against the proposal. Some, like Lucinda Eby, wish it just didn't exist.
Eby and partner Linda Sue Bente, who live in Jackson, sought a marriage license locally in March.
Still, Eby said the proposal means nothing to her in an election rife with other issues.
"It makes me sad that people hate us so much, and it makes me sad that so much attention is focused on this peripheral issue," she said.
Sharon Emery of the Citizen Patriot Lansing bureau contributed to this story.
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