Crowd rallies against gay marriage amendment outside Statehouse

INDIANAPOLIS – More than 200 people attended a Statehouse rally Monday to send a message to lawmakers: If the state’s constitution is amended to ban same-sex marriage, it would affect more than gay couples.\nCandace Gingrich, who works for the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign and is a half sister of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, told the crowd that the amendment would affect all unmarried couples in Indiana.\nThe proposed constitutional amendment has two sections. The first says that marriage in Indiana solely applies to the union of one man and one woman, and the second says that the state constitution and laws cannot be construed to provide marriage benefits to one couple or group.\nGingrich said lawmakers need to understand what the second part of the amendment would do.\n“They need to read the fine print,” Gingrich said. “We’ve got to educate people about the second line of that amendment.”\nProponents say the amendment is needed to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage from lawsuits and activist judges.\nCritics say the measure is discriminatory. In addition, they believe that the second provision is vague and could be used to nullify domestic violence laws that apply to married and unmarried couples, as well as contracts that unmarried senior couples sometimes have to retain inheritances and share legal, financial and health care decisions. \nCollege student Lisa Sklar, a lesbian who spoke at the rally, said she has the same hopes and dreams as others and would one day like to have a wife. She said she plans to leave Indiana after graduation and move to a more understanding state.\n“I will not settle for being a second-class citizen in the state of Indiana,” she said.