Family group challenges Speaker

INDIANAPOLIS -- A family advocacy group has taken out a full-page advertisement in a South Bend newspaper challenging House Speaker Patrick Bauer to give a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage a hearing in his chamber.\n"Demand your right to vote on marriage today," the ad published Monday in the South Bend Tribune reads.\nBauer dismissed the ad as a group's effort to raise money. He strongly suggested the campaign would not change his mind.\n"For the amount they paid for the ad, they haven't gotten their money's worth," the Democrat from South Bend said.\nThe ad was paid for by the Family Research Council, a Washington-based organization that has opposed proposals across the nation that would sanction same-sex marriage.\nThe ad encourages Bauer's constituents to phone or e-mail him with requests that the proposed constitutional amendment be given a chance to advance in the House. The amendment would only allow marriage between one man and one woman to be considered valid in Indiana.\nThe Senate passed the amendment language earlier this session, but Bauer has said it is not a pressing matter, and the House would not consider it.\nThe ad takes issue with that stand.\n"While the rest of the country is moving quickly to debate and to legislate the issue of same-sex marriage, Indiana House leaders ... claim they're just 'too busy' to discuss it," the ad stated.\n"There are certainly a lot of people that we represent who think it is very important," said Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana.\nIndiana is one of 37 states with laws banning same-sex marriages, but Indiana's law is being challenged in a case now before the Indiana Court of Appeals.\nSupporters say constitutional amendments are necessary to ensure legislation and court judgments -- such as a recent ruling in favor of gay marriage by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court -- will not compel recognition of same-sex unions.\nGay-rights activists see the amendment campaign as vindictive and partisan.\nTo change Indiana's constitution, a resolution must pass two consecutive, separately elected General Assemblys and then win approval of the people in a statewide vote. The process usually takes a minimum of three years.\nBauer said there was no reason to start such a process.\n"This isn't Massachusetts, this is Indiana, and we already have a law that covers that"