Group Seeks Repeal Of Arkansas Amendment Banning Gay Marriage
by June 27, 2013 7:44 pm 125 views
From Rob Moritz with our content partner, the Arkansas News Bureau:
An Arkansas gay rights group on Thursday submitted the wording for a proposed ballot measure that would repeal the 2004 constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage in the state.
Arkansans for Equality submitted its proposal a day after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The ruling makes same-sex married couples eligible for federal benefits, but the nation’s highest court left it to individual states to decide who can marry.
The justices, in a separate but related case, cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California without establishing a constitutional right for gays to marry in all states.
Judd Mann, spokesman for Arkansans for Equality, said his group submitted its proposal to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s office Thursday morning.
Arkansans for Equality’s proposal would not authorize same-sex marriage in Arkansas. If the measure were to get on the ballot and be approved by voters in November 2014, Mann said his group would then work on another ballot proposal to legalize gay marriage in Arkansas.
If the proposal is certified by the attorney general, Arkansans for Equality would have to gather 78,133 signatures of registered voters by July 7, 2014, to get the proposal on next year’s general election ballot.
Read more comments from Mann at this link.