Human Rights Campaign Statement on Arizona House Vote on Same-Sex Marriage Ban

WASHINGTON – Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization, released a statement today on the Arizona House of Representatives’ vote to put a proposed state constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage on the ballot. The measure now moves on to the state Senate, where legislators will decide whether to bring it to a vote. A similar ban was defeated at the polls in 2006.

"The Human Rights Campaign is proud that many fair-minded House members fought valiantly to defeat this harmful and unnecessary amendment," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "We will continue to work with our legislative allies to defeat this amendment as it moves to the state Senate."

Same-sex marriage is already prohibited in Arizona. A state law enacted in 1996 defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman. The law was upheld in 2003 by a state appellate court

HRC was the largest organizational contributor to the effort to defeat Proposition 107 in 2006, the constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage as well as all domestic partnerships for same- or opposite-sex couples.

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain campaigned for Proposition 107, the ballot measure defeated by Arizona voters in 2006.