The Oberlin Review
<< Front page News September 10, 2004

Ohio voted on banning same-sex marriages
Eleven states altogether passed the amendments

Ohio passed Issue 1 on Tuesday with 62 to 38 percent voting for the amendment, which will ban same-sex marriages in the state. Ten other states passed the amendment and made them part of their constitutions. In Ohio the amendment will serve as a reinforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act, which was passed in the state earlier this year.

The amendment was passed in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah. The percentages with which most states passed the amendment were outstandingly high, the lowest winning percent being in Oregon, 57, and the highest in Mississippi, 86.

Although Oberlin students, led by the Lambda Union, the Oberlin gay\lesbian\bisexual \transgender\organization on campus, tried really hard to keep the amendment off the ballot by collecting over 400 signatures, it was still voted on in Ohio.

In Oberlin there were many events and initiatives organized specifically to increase the awareness of what Issue 1 stands for among the students, but it turned out that the state of Ohio has still not accepted the idea of same-sex marriages. The amendment states that Ohio Constitution only recognizes marriage “as a union between one man and one woman.” It also notes that “neither the state nor counties can give legal status to unmarried individuals whose relationships are intended to approximate the design or effect of marriage.”

With minor differences in the wording, all the states that voted for the amendment explicitly stated that same-sex marriages will not be recognized in any shape or form and neither will divorces between people of the same sex.
 
 

   

The Review News Service: News, weather, sports and more, in your ObieMail every Sunday and Wednesday night. (Click here to subscribe.)