INDIANA: Senate Committee To Consider Same-Sex Marriage Ban On Monday

On Monday the Indiana Senate Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee will meet in the afternoon to consider the same-sex marriage ban that passed in the House last week.

The Senate’s session is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. EST. The committee hearing will be held immediately after session in the Senate Chambers. Senate President Pro Tem David Long announced last week he would assign the proposed ban — known as House Joint Resolution 3 — to the committee. Long, a Fort Wayne Republican, chairs the 12-member committee, which is one of the Senate’s largest and includes the leadership of both parties. The Senate committee will review an amended version of the measure, after the Indiana House moved to strip out the civil unions ban contained in the proposed constitutional amendment’s second sentence. Long has said he prefers the Senate committee not to amend the measure, so any possible changes can be weighed on the full Senate floor.

Since the version of the bill that was approved by the House differs from the one passed by both chambers in the last legislative session, if the Senate approved the amended bill it could not appear on the ballot until 2016.  Hate groups are pressuring members of the Senate to approve the original version (which bans all forms of same-sex unions) and send it back to the House.