constitutional amendment

Bush calls for amendment to bar gay marriage
WASHINGTON – President Bush called yesterday for a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, pushing an explosive cultural issue to the forefront of the 2004 presidential campaign.

In a brief announcement, Bush urged Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution “defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and a woman as husband and wife.”

The move followed actions in Massachusetts and San Francisco, where the mayor recently began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Massachusetts’ highest court ruled in November that same-sex couples have the same right as heterosexuals to marry and ordered the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to them in May.