Bredesen says he will vote to ban gay marriage: Governor in town tonight at Civic Center
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Bredesen, a Democrat who’s running for re-election, said he doesn’t expect the gay marriage proposal to have a major effect at the polls.
“The only question is whether it passes by 85 percent or 95 percent,” said Bredesen, who will be in Warren County to meet the public tonight at 6:30 p.m. at McMinnville Civic Center.
Still, gay marriage has become a national hot-button issue, with President Bush this week declaring his support for an anti-gay marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The proposed Tennessee amendment, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman, passed the Legislature overwhelmingly in 2005 and will be voted on Nov. 7 in the statewide general election.
There are currently 18 states with constitutional amendments against gay marriage. Most of those amendments were adopted after Massachusetts’ highest court legalized gay marriage in 2003.
Tennessee is one of five states where a proposed ban has passed through the Legislature and is on its way to voters.
Bredesen said he opposes gay marriage but thinks the current state law banning gay marriage is sufficient.
“The Republicans want to resurrect the culture wars of the 1990s, but I don’t think they should or can,” Bredesen said.
Bredesen ran for governor the first time in 1994, losing to Republican Don Sundquist in an election that also brought a tide of Republican victories nationwide. Bredesen was later elected in 2002.
“In 1994, these cultural issues were the whole game,” he said. “But 2002 was dramatically different, and by now I think a lot of these issues have been resolved.”
The governor said the gay marriage amendment is not likely to draw large numbers of voters who would not normally come to the polls.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a lawsuit charging that the state failed to meet notification requirements as outlined in the Tennessee Constitution, which states an amendment must be published six months before the next General Assembly election. But a Davidson County judge in February ruled in favor of the lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has said marriage should be protected as an institution between one man and one woman because it “does a better job protecting children better than any other institution humankind has devised.”