Rep. Eric Turner, R-Cicero, lead sponsor of HJR-3, smiles after the Indiana House of Representatives passed his proposed constitutional amendment on marriage by a vote of 57-40 on Tuesday. It now moves to the Senate.
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The Indiana House on Tuesday may well have sentenced Hoosiers to three more years of a distracting, divisive debate over the proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
By a 57-40 vote, the House approved HJR-3 a day after it was amended to delete the original resolution's second sentence, which threatened to block recognition of civil unions and may even have endangered domestic partner benefits. That deletion makes HJR-3 less egregious, but the resolution is still just as unnecessary as before and just as likely to spark a protracted legal battle in the federal courts if the issue ends up on the ballot.
And because of Indiana's constitutional amendment process - which requires two separately elected legislatures to approve a proposed amendment before it can go to voters - a statewide referendum on the measure may be delayed until November 2016.
Do Hoosiers really want another 34 months of stressful, often painful debate on this issue? How would that help us in any way to address critical challenges such as improving student achievement and creating more jobs in our state?
Proponents of the ban point out that the Indiana Senate could restore the second sentence and, with a House concurrence, the issue still could go to voters this November. Some even contend that the revised amendment still could be placed on this year's ballot, although that is a murky legal argument that would ensure a lawsuit.
And to what gain? State law already bans same-sex marriage in Indiana, and federal courts, which would review the amendment, are not bound by state restrictions deemed to be in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The protracted debate over this amendment, first passed in 2011, already has been an enormous waste of time and energy. It's time to set it aside, and to tackle the challenges that stand in the way of growth in our state. Let's put our energy behind essential issues and look for ways to unite, rather than divide, Hoosiers.