Tennessee to Vote on Ban on Gay Union

Tennessee voters will decide next year whether to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage after the state’s House of Representatives on Thursday approved putting the question on the ballot.

The House voted 88 to 7 for the resolution; the Senate approved the measure 29 to 3 last month.

Similar votes in other states have helped draw conservative voters to the polls, but politicians and scholars in Tennessee said they did not expect much of an effect in votes for the governor and all the seats in the House next year.

Tennessee law defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman, but lawmakers are trying to prevent courts from ruling the law unconstitutional and to forbid legal recognition of same-sex marriages sanctioned by other states.

About a dozen other states added same-sex marriage bans to their constitutions last year, and more are planning the same in coming elections.

In Vermont on Thursday, the Legislature voted to retain three justices who were on the state Supreme Court when it issued the 1999 decision that led the Legislature in 2000 to pass the nation’s first law granting legal recognition to same-sex unions.

Vermont lawmakers vote every six years whether to retain justices, and conservative activists sought to have the three justices involved in the 1999 decision fired. The vote was made amid a heavy security presence at the State House.