Ohio group cleared in effort to redefine marriage

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — Sup­port­ers of a mea­sure that would allow gay mar­riage in Ohio were cleared by state offi­cials Tues­day to con­tinue their bal­lot effort to amend the state’s constitution.

The Free­dom to Marry coali­tion wants to repeal a 2004 state con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment that says Ohio only rec­og­nizes a mar­riage between a man and a woman. The group’s pro­posal would replace that amend­ment with one that allows two con­sent­ing adults to enter into mar­riage regard­less of their sex.

Under the pro­posed mea­sure, no reli­gious insti­tu­tion would be forced to marry cou­ples or rec­og­nize their marriages.

Attor­ney Gen­eral Mike DeWine on Tues­day cer­ti­fied the coalition’s amend­ment sum­mary as “fair and truth­ful.” He had rejected its sum­mary phras­ing last month.

The Ohio Bal­lot Board must also review the pro­posal before the group can begin gath­er­ing the roughly 385,000 sig­na­tures needed to put the mea­sure before vot­ers in Novem­ber 2013. The panel plans to meet Thurs­day to dis­cuss the amendment.

Free­dom to Marry orga­niz­ers say more than 1,400 vol­un­teers are ready to begin cir­cu­lat­ing petitions.

The cam­paign also received a boost on Mon­day when the pres­i­dent of the Cleve­land chap­ter of the National Asso­ci­a­tion for the Advance­ment of Col­ored Peo­ple threw his sup­port behind the amend­ment effort.

“Not since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has there been a more impor­tant step to achiev­ing equal­ity for all Amer­i­cans,” Pres­i­dent George Forbes said in a statement.

Posted by AP News on Apr 3 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.