After hours of heated arguments during an all-night Democratic filibuster, the state Assembly voted 68-27 Friday morning to approve a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The amendment will now move to the state Senate, where it appears likely to pass, according to state legislators.
State Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, said the amendment is likely to come before the Senate early this week. If it passes, it must also be approved by the next legislative session and by a public referendum to become law.
Risser said he expected the issue to receive active debate. However, he and state Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, both of whom oppose the amendment, agreed it was likely to pass.
The proposed amendment will also prohibit \legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage"" for same-sex couples. Risser said he will offer an amendment to remove this prohibition. However, such an amendment was offered and defeated in the Assembly, and Risser said it was likely to be defeated again when it reached the Senate.
Passage of the proposed amendment in the Assembly provoked widely varying reactions.
Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said in a press release the real question at stake was whether the legal definition of marriage should be determined by voters or ""left to the whimsy of a single, unelected, unaccountable judge,"" not whether same-sex couples may marry.
However, Joshua Freker, public education director for Action Wisconsin, an advocacy group for gay rights, called the proposed amendment ""one of the most sweeping anti-gay measures in the country,"" and said its adoption would be an act of discrimination and intolerance. He added Action Wisconsin is working to educate the public about the content of the amendment and its effects on same-sex couples.
""We find that once people understand that the amendment would ban not just marriage but also civil unions or any other comprehensive rights for same-sex couples, they ... don't support it,"" he said.
Gov. Jim Doyle, speaking on Wisconsin Radio Network's Ask the Governor program Friday, criticized the push for an amendment as unnecessary and divisive. He said state law already defines marriage as between a man and woman, and added issues such as the economy are more important to the people of Wisconsin.
Doyle's approval is not required to amend the state's constitution.
