STATE SENATE MOVES ON BILL TO BAN SAME-SEX MARRIAGES

The Missouri Senate is expected to give first-round approval today to a bill that would ban same-sex marriages.

The bill's sponsor, State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said passage of the measure would put pressure on the Missouri House to follow suit.

"It will go screaming over there," he said.

Republicans have been unsuccessful so far in the House to get a similar measure to the floor for a vote.

The Senate bill also had been bottled up until Monday when the Senate president pro tem, James Mathewson, exerted his influence to move the bill up for a vote.

Republicans say the ban is needed in light of a court ruling in Hawaii that could force that state to legalize same-sex marriages.

Missouri, then, would have to recognize such marriages unless it specifically bans them, GOP lawmakers argue.

But House Democrats have argued that there is no need to push through legislation now, particularly since there has yet to be a final court ruling in Hawaii.

But in the Senate it is a different story, where the proposed ban appears to have solid bipartisan support.

"We believe the votes are there. It was a matter of getting it to a vote," Kinder said late Monday afternoon.

Kinder predicted all but a handful of the Senate's 34 members would vote to ban same-sex marriages.

If approved today, the Senate could give final passage to the measure later this week or early next week.

The measure would then go to the Missouri House.

Kinder said there is still time to approve such legislation before the end of the legislative session on May 17 if the House leadership gets on board.

Kinder's bill was voted out of a Senate committee on a 5-1 vote in mid-February. But the committee chairman, Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, refused to bring the bill to the Senate floor.

On Monday, Mathewson convinced Caskey to turn in the bill and let the full Senate vote on it.

Public opinion against same-sex marriages was a major factor in getting the bill in line for a vote, Kinder said.