MISSOURI: GAY MARRIAGE BAN GETS VOTER OK

By Matt Franck | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Tuesday, Aug. 03, 2004

Missouri voters gave resounding approval to an amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage, putting the nation on notice that similar proposed bans in other states could be difficult to defeat.

The Missouri Constitution will now state that "to be valid and recognized in this state a marriage shall exist only between a man and a woman."

They're words that gay marriage opponents like Vicky Hartzler have wanted for years -- but particularly after judges in Massachusetts ruled to legalize same-sex unions.

"I think that Missouri values have spoken," said Hartzler, a spokeswoman for the Coalition to Protect Marriage in Missouri. "This is a message of the heart, and here in the Heartland, we value marriage."

Early returns showed the ban winning by a ratio of more than 2-to-1. Missouri's vote on the amendment has attracted nationwide interest from people on both sides of the issue. The state is the first to vote on the matter this election season, with seven set to follow suit by November.

State constitutions have become the battleground of the gay marriage debate, after an anti-gay marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed in the Senate last month.

The wide margin may be especially noteworthy given that the Democrats outnumbered the Republicans at the polls Tuesday, as a result of the hotly contested Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Opponents of the gay marriage ban said they were discouraged by the results but proud of their campaign. "We stepped up to the challenge and organized ourselves," said Doug Gray, who headed an anti-amendment campaign for the Constitution Defense League. "We moved this debate forward."

The campaign was fueled by nearly $400,000 in donations, most of it gathered through house parties in St. Louis and Kansas City. Supporters of the gay marriage ban raised little for their cause -- less than $10,000 -- relying instead on dozens of church congregations to carry the message via newsletters and announcements from the pulpit.

Four other states -- Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska and Nevada -- have passed constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.

"I think we'll definitely have an uphill battle," said Seth Kilbourn, national field coordinator for Human Rights Watch, which spent $60,000 attempting to defeat the Missouri amendment. "But I do think we'll have more time in other states to educate voters and talk about what the amendments are really about."

Florence Shinkle and Michelle Munz contributed to this report.