The Indiana Marriage Protection Act, House Joint Resolution 3 if passed would put to a vote in November a constitutional amendment as follows: “Only marriage between one (1) man and one (1) woman will be valid or recognized as a marriage in Indiana. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized.”

If enacted, this legislation would amend the Indiana state constitution to do two things: (1) prohibit any future legislatures from passing a law that would allow same sex couples to legally marry and (2) prohibit any future legislatures from enacting a law that would allow any legal protections for any unmarried relationship that is similar to marriage (civil unions or domestic partnerships, for example).

This is a significant civil rights issue and is bad legislation for Indiana institutions and business. This is about permanently denying rights to a whole group of people, and doing it by arbitrarily changing our state constitution.

This is not about liberty and justice for all! This anti-freedom amendment duplicates existing law and would permanently ban all protections for same-sex couples and their families and remove existing protections for unmarried Hoosiers. The Supreme Court recently struck down DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) and the country moves forward with 15 states now recognizing same sex marriage. Amending the state constitution with this ban will be challenged in the future costing taxpayers more money in court costs.

Many businesses, universities and large cities are against this legislation. Conflicts with federal statutes and undermining the rights of same-sex couples and their families, both long-time Hoosiers and newly arrived transplants will jeopardize employer-provided family benefits, legal contracts and human rights ordinances which will burden existing businesses, educational institutions and government agencies. Furthermore, it will hurt our economy by making Indiana undesirable for attracting and retaining the best, diversified talent.

The Kosciusko County Democrats recommend opposition to the Indiana Marriage Protection Act, HJR3 in the 2014 legislative session.