News
2006-09-01
Marriage ban
heads to Arizona ballot
Arizona to vote
on marriage ban
The Arizona
supreme court on Thursday ruled that an anti-same-sex
The Arizona
supreme court on Thursday ruled that an anti-same-sex
marriage amendment to the state constitution can appear on
the November 7 ballot, while a recently released poll
of Arizona voters indicates the harsh measure will
fail.
The justices,
upholding a lower court decision, spurned Arizona
Together's arguments that the marriage measure violates the
state's single-subject rule for ballot
initiatives.
Arizona Together
and five straight couples, most of them elderly, had
sued to keep the measure off the ballot. A key talking point
of the gay-friendly group is that the amendment aims
to forbid any domestic partnership or granting of
marriage-like rights. Several localities, including
Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe, and Pima County, grant
domestic-partner benefits; some offer domestic
partnerships popular among older people seeking to
keep health benefits that would be jeopardized by
remarriage.
Meanwhile, a poll
of Arizona registered voters released Tuesday by
KAET/Channel 8 in Tempe indicated that the ban would fail.
Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they opposed
the constitutional marriage ban, while 38% supported
it.
The poll of 846
registered voters was conducted by the Walter Cronkite
School of Journalism at Arizona State University. It has a
margin of error of plus or minus three percentage
points.
Arizonans
consistently oppose antigay measures that would deprive
people of benefits, according to the journalism
school's polling on the issue. In January 2005, 54% of
registered voters said they would support an amendment
to the Arizona constitution specifying that marriage would
be allowed only between one man and one woman. But
only 33% would support a same-sex marriage ban if it
also prohibited domestic partners from receiving
public-health or retirement benefits, KAET's Web site shows.
The measure has
been endorsed by all three of the state's Catholic
bishops as well as U.S. senator John McCain of Arizona, who
defended his stance in August 2005 by saying that the
measure "would allow the people of Arizona to decide
on the definition of marriage." (The Advocate)
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