INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — As lawmakers continue pushing to ban
gay weddings under the Indiana Constitution, state Republicans are
debating whether to define marriage as between a man and a woman — a
clause removed from the party platform two years ago.
The Indiana
GOP’s platform committee this week voted to reinsert the language in the
document, which serves as an official statement of the party’s values
and typically includes sweeping statements such as support for fiscal
responsibility.
The last platform approved at the party’s 2012
convention did not address gay marriage. But when Republican delegates
gather in Fort Wayne next month, they’ll have to decide the party’s
official position.
Republican delegate Megan Robertson said the
fight is divisive. Robertson, who led the lobbying campaign against a
proposed marriage ban this year, said the issue "drives a wedge" in the
party.
"This is an issue where there are a variety of opinions
within the Republican Party, so the platform should not take sides on
that," she said.
Robertson is counting on a battle at the convention when the roughly 1,700 delegates are asked to take up
the measure.
Terre
Haute lawyer Jim Bopp, perhaps best known for his national efforts to
fight campaign finance limits, offered the proposal last week at a
meeting of the party’s platform committee. He noted that the language
had been in the state party platform through 2010 but was somehow
removed in 2012, the last time the platform was altered.
Members
of the platform committee, which is chaired by Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann
and Indianapolis City-County Council Minority Leader Mike McQuillen, met
throughout the state in the last few months to draft the party’s 2014
platform. They held their final meeting in Indianapolis Monday and
approved the marriage language. It also recognizes that other families
make valuable contributions to society.
"I think it answered some
of the criticisms of the original amendment, that it implied we were
criticizing other family’s formations," Bopp said. "I never felt that we
were."
Bopp said he’s not expecting a battle at the convention
because the new compromise language assuaged many concerns. He noted
that many Republicans already support limiting marriage to being between
one man and one woman.
The fight comes just a few months after
state lawmakers battled over the issue at the Statehouse. Opponents of
gay marriage proposed adding the state’s existing ban to the state
constitution by placing it on the November ballot for consideration by
voters.
But state lawmakers altered the proposed ban, re-setting
the clock on Indiana’s lengthy constitutional amendment process and
making 2016 the soonest voters may see the issue on the ballot. Senate
President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said at the time that he and
many other lawmakers expected the Supreme Court to weigh in on the
issue, making any state action likely moot.