Indiana

The Indiana Senate has approved a proposed amendment to the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage, Reuters reports. The amendment must now be approved again by legislators next legislative session and then go to voters in 2016. The good news is that the House, when passing the amendment, changed the wording so civil unions would not be barred.

An Indiana Senate committee voted this week to send a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to the full legislative body, the Associated Press reports. House legislators stripped out a sentence that would ban civil unions, but the amendment's supporters want the sentence restored. If the sentence is restored, a public vote could happen this fall. If the sentence is not restored, then legislators would have to pass the amendment a second time in another legislative session before the measure could go to voters.

The Indiana House approved putting a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage before voters, The Guardian reports. Now the measure has to be considered in the Senate. However, the proposed amendment was modified to remove language that would have banned civil unions and same-sex couples receiving benefits from their employers. Senators are expected to try to restore the language, The Guardian further reports.

At least three Republican legislators in Indiana have proposed a change to a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that is pending in the House, Gannett's Palladium-Item reports. The change would strike a sentence that would ban civil unions for same-sex couples. The change would mean the measure would have to be approved a second time by the General Assembly before going to voters.

The Indianpolis Star is reporting that more than one-third of the Indiana House members who voted for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 2011 now won't repeat their votes "or are wavering." "Those statistics reveal how far the debate over gay marriage has shifted in a state where only three years ago, House representatives overwhelmingly approved the ban 70 to 26," The Star concludes.

The Indiana House has advanced a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, the Associated Press reports. So far the full House only took a technical vote to accept the action of the House Elections Committee in favor of the measure. A floor debate is expected next week.

The Indiana House Elections Committee voted in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage last night, the Indianpolis Star reports. Nine Republicans were in favor and three Democrats were against the measure. If passed, the measure would go onto the November ballot for voters to consider. The measure has already been passed by legislators once before, but it has to be passed again before voters get the chance to decide whether to amend the state constitution to incorporate the ban.

The bill was changed from the Judiciary Committee to the Elections Committee because there were not enough votes to pass it out of the Judiciary Committee, The Star further reports.

The Indiana House Judiciary Committee heard testimony today about legislation that would start the process to amend Indiana's constitution to ban same-sex marriage. But the vote was delayed by the committee chair, the Associated Press reports.

Republican-red Indiana is seeking to ban same-sex marriage in its constitution; lawmakers must approve the proposed constitutional amendment a second time before sending it to voters, the Associated Press reports. But "polls have shown increasing numbers of Indiana voters oppose a constitutional ban even though most still oppose gay marriage," the AP reports. Moreover, at least two lawmakers who voted for the amendment in 2011 now say they won't vote for it again.

 Opponents cite the amendment for a proposed ban on civil unions and employee benefits for same-sex couples.

The Associated Press reports on an effort in Indiana to amend the state constitution to bar same-sex marriage, including blocking any future efforts to change the constitution to permit same-sex marriage. The AP reports: "The proposed amendment, if passed, would restrict marriage to being between a man and woman. But it would also further restrict the rights of same-sex couples and ban lawmakers from reconsidering the issue in the future. Those additional restrictions, which are in the second sentence of the proposed amendment, have drawn increasing concern from lawmakers."