House Republicans propose gay marriage ban

A group of U.S. lawmakers have proposed a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage across the U.S., days after the U.S. Supreme Court made rulings in support of gay marriage.

Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) and 28 other House Republicans introduced the “Marriage Protection Amendment” on Friday.

“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 federal constitutional amendment reads.

The amendment was introduced after the Supreme Court made two rulings on Wednesday which struck down a ban on gay marriage in California and entitled federal benefits to same-sex married couples.

On Wednesday, the high court ruled in a 5-4 decision that Section 3 of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, is unconstitutional.

The ruling overturned a nationwide law that limited federal benefits, including tax breaks and survivor assistance aid, to same-sex married couples.

In another ruling on the same day, the Supreme Court ruled that proponents of Proposition 8 could not appeal an earlier ruling from trial court that struck down the California state law.

In 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, a ballot initiative according to which only marriages between a man and a woman would be recognized in the state.

On Friday, just two days after the Supreme Court refused to rule on Proposition 8’s constitutionality, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the ban on gay marriages in California.

A group of sponsors of Proposition 8 filed an emergency petition on Saturday requesting the Supreme Court to overrule the Ninth Circuit order but the petition was rejected by the U.S. high court.

Huelskamp has said that there is now more support in the U.S. for a nationwide ban on same-sex marriage due to the Supreme Court rulings.

U.S. President Barack Obama hailed the Supreme Court rulings as a “victory for American democracy.”

With same-sex marriage legalized in California, the most populous state in the U.S., the number of U.S. states that allow same-sex marriage now stands at 13.

Same-sex marriage is against the nature of human beings and all divine religions define marriage as the union between one man and one woman.