WASHINGTON — President Bush is in favor of the traditional definition of marriage, as are the Catholic Church and a majority of Americans.

But a majority in the Senate wouldn't even consider the question. They killed the Federal Marriage Amendment on July 14.

The constitutional amendment did not get enough votes necessary in the U.S. Senate to move the proposal past a Democratic procedural hurdle. After four days of debate, 48 Republicans voted in favor, with 50 Democrats opposed. Sixty votes were needed to get the measure onto the floor.

The House of Representatives is expected to deal with the amendment later this year, political experts said.

Bush, one of the leading supporters of the ban, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the outcome.

“Activist judges and local officials in some parts of the country are not letting up in their efforts to redefine marriage for the rest of America — and neither should defenders of traditional marriage flag in their efforts,” Bush said. The president announced that he favored the amendment after the Massachusetts Supreme Court commanded the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples who want them.

Others who favored the ban did not view the vote as a failure, seeing it instead as the opening battle in a long war.

“I think this is a tremendous step forward for the issue of marriage in the public discourse that we were engaged in,” said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., during a conference call with reporters moments after the voting ended. “I'm very happy that we have now brought the issue to the American public, and I think the public is becoming engaged, and this is a very important moment to make that happen. … I look forward to continuing the fight.”

In fact, one of the leaders defending traditional marriage said he expected to lose the Senate vote. When the nonpartisan Alliance for Marriage drafted the amendment in July 2001, it basically had two goals, said Matt Daniels, the coalition president. One was to get politicians in both parties on the record regarding their stances; the other was to educate the public and raise awareness, he said.

“The great social questions of the day are always decided over long periods of time,” he said. “This is certainly one of the greatest social debates in the history of our nation, and it is going to be played out in multiple votes in the House and multiple votes in the Senate. That's always been our expectation. This is the beginning of a great process, a democratic debate over the future of marriage.”

Opponents of the ban in the Senate said that the Constitution — which has only been amended 17 times since the Bill of Rights was enacted — should not be tinkered with and that there are other, more important political issues to address.

A proposed amendment must pass both houses of Congress by a two-thirds majority in each and then by three-fourths of the states, either by legislatures or in special conventions.

The Two Abstentions

Groups promoting homosexual “marriage” rejoiced in the vote's outcome. “This was an attempt to divide Americans that backfired and divided Republicans,” Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “This debate has always been about politics, and undermining the Constitution is their tool.”

The only two senators abstaining from the vote were John Kerry and John Edwards, the expected Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees. They had promised to return from campaigning to oppose the amendment when it came to a final vote but stayed away for the procedural vote. Though they have voiced opposition to same-sex “marriage,” they say the states should decide the issue.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been at the fore-front in favoring the amendment and opposing same-sex “marriages.” In late June, Bishop Wilton Gregory, the conference president, asked all Catholic bishops in the country to urge their senators to support the amendment, and on July 6, he wrote each senator and asked for his or her support.

Meanwhile, on July 12, Msgr. William Fay, general secretary of the bishops' conference, spoke about the importance of marriage during a press conference sponsored by the Alliance for Marriage.

“The Church believes and teaches that marriage is created by God,” said Msgr. Fay, one of several speakers. “It is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong and loving union of a man and a woman who are the foundation of the family unit, which itself is the bedrock of society and culture. Marriage is not an arbitrary social arrangement that can be altered by either the Church or the state. It is God's will for humanity and the keystone of every human community.

“Just as we know from natural reason that we cannot ignore or violate, without grave consequences, the structure and integrity of the physical world, which is our environment,” he said, “so too we cannot ignore or violate the natural structure of our human relationships. … The failure to protect marriage at this important moment in our history will have devastating consequences for our society and our nation.”

The two sentences, originally proposed by Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., at the core of the Senate debate were: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”

The issue sparked heated comments on the Senate floor, including the charge by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., that the Senate's Republican leadership was “engaging in the politics of mass distraction by bringing up a discriminatory marriage amendment.” Kennedy said a majority of Americans do not support the amendment, and in fact, a University of Pennsylvania National Annenberg Election Survey from June showed that 48% of Americans oppose an amendment banning same-sex marriage, while 43% are in favor.

Most Oppose ‘Marriage’

A nationwide Gallup poll in May, however, found that 55% of Americans oppose same-sex “marriage.” That was down from 65% in December, however.

Still, Santorum said during debate, “I can't think of anything more important than the basic social building block of our country. And that's what marriage is. That's what the family is. And it is in jeopardy. It is in serious real jeopardy as a result of what the courts are doing.”

Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, said most politicians, from both parties, don't like talking about the issue at all. But that might change if more constituents show they favor traditional marriage, she said.

“It took a decade from Roe (vs. Wade) for people to become well-organized on the abortion issue,” she said. “This is a new issue, so leadership on the grass-roots level and other places is just beginning to be organized and mobilized. Come November, if it's become clear that voters care enough about this issue that it makes a difference in elections, you will find a very rapid change in the political climate in Washington.”

If the Federal Marriage Amendment doesn't eventually pass, then there would be a state-by-state struggle by judiciaries to create and impose versions of same-sex marriages, Gallagher predicted.

“So, I suppose,” she said, “you could say either way, it's going to be a long campaign.”

Carlos Briceno writes from Seminole, Florida.

How Candidates Voted

The proposed constitutional amendment was simple: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.”

But the following senators, who are on November ballots, killed the amendment. They wouldn—t even allow the amendment to be debated.

Presidential Candidate: John Kerry (by not voting)

Vice-Presidential Candidate: John Edwards (by not voting)

Arizona: John McCain

Arkansas: Blanche Lincoln

California: Barbara Boxer

Indiana: Evan Bayh

Connecticut: Christopher Dodd

Colorado: Ben Nighthorse Campbell

Florida: Bob Graham

Hawaii: Daniel Inouye

Louisiana: John Breaux

Maryland: Barbara Mikulski

Nevada: Harry Reid

North Dakota: Byron Dorgan

New York: Charles Schumer

Oregon: Ron Wyden

South Dakota: Tom Daschle

Vermont: Patrick Leahy

Wisconsin: Russell Feingold

Washington: Patty Murray