http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid23911.aspMassachusetts could face an "angry, divisive" fight if a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage reaches the 2008 state ballot, Rep. Barney Frank says.
The congressman blamed backers of the initiative petition for trying to provoke a new fight despite a lack of controversy over same-sex marriage. "Basically, they're the disturbers of the civic peace," the Democrat said in a wide-ranging Associated Press interview Thursday. "We now have social peace in Massachusetts. They're the ones who want to stir it up.... This is a nonissue in Massachusetts."
The Massachusetts Family Institute said the 124,000 certified signatures it gathered for the petition, nearly double the number required, was a sign of strong public support for outlawing same-sex marriage. "All they want is an opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage," said the group's president, Kris Mineau. "Now that the people have spoken, the good congressman has decided this is a divisive issue."
Before the amendment can be placed on the state ballot, it must be approved by at least 50 lawmakers during two separate sessions of the state legislature. "I think by 2008, people will say, 'Do we really need to have an angry, divisive debate over a nonissue?'" Frank said. "The question for the 50 legislators is, Do they want to make this a front-page issue again, leading the TV news?"