Ohio to enact same-sex marriage ban

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Senate has approved one of the most far-reaching gay marriage bans in the nation despite charges from some lawmakers that the legislation was mean-spirited and discriminatory.

The measure says same-sex marriages are "against the strong public policy of the state," and would prohibit state employees from getting benefits for domestic partners, whether they were gay or unmarried heterosexual couples. The bill permits exceptions to the benefits ban, including cities, villages, townships, schools and private companies.

However, universities are included in the ban.

Senate Minority Leader Gregory DiDonato, a Democrat, said the bill was mean-spirited and "just plain wrong." Sen. C.J. Prentiss, also a Democrat, quoted from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech as she called the bill "good, old-fashioned discrimination."

But Republican Sen. Jay Hottinger, a longtime supporter of the same-sex marriage ban, said that opponents were misstating the bill's intentions. He said the bill was not an attack on gays, but was meant to protect a traditional definition of marriage.

"This is solely and clearly clarifying and protecting the definition of marriage between one man and one woman," Hottinger said.

Lawmakers have struggled with the issue for seven years, when Hottinger, then a House lawmaker, introduced a bill in the House. Republican Rep. Bill Seitz sponsored the current bill and told the committee that a ruling in Massachusetts that declared the state's gay marriage ban unconstitutional could affect Ohio.

Thirty-seven states have passed laws recognizing marriage as the union between a man and a woman. But Ohio's measure is particularly restrictive because of the benefits ban, said Seth Kilbourn, national field director for the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay and lesbian lobbying group. Nebraska has a similar ban.