Bush endorses amendment banning gay marriage

11.45am

WASHINGTON - United States President George W Bush has endorsed a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage as he seizes the initiative in a contentious issue that could energise his conservative base for the November election.

In making the announcement in the White House Roosevelt Room on Tuesday, Bush expressed alarm at events in San Francisco, where marriage licenses have been issued to gays and lesbians, and in Massachusetts, where the state's highest court ruled gay couples have the right to wed.

"If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America," Bush said.

His hastily arranged appearance came a day after he halted his above-the-fray position in his re-election campaign and opened an attack on Democrat John Kerry, who is running to challenge Bush in the general election.

"Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass and to send to the states for ratification an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and woman, as husband and wife.

But Bush left the door open to states to provide homosexual civil unions and other legal arrangements for the gay community.

"The amendment should fully protect marriage while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage," Bush said.

Elaborating on this theme, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said "states have a right to enter into their own legal arrangements, certainly hospital visitation rights, insurance benefits and civil unions."

The Republican president did not endorse specific legislation as the vehicle for the amendment but the White House said Bush approved of the broad principles offered by Colorado Republican Representative Marilyn Musgrave.

Her proposed amendment says "marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman."

Same-sex marriage has become a hot-button issue in this presidential election year, with opponents saying it would destroy the institution of marriage. Proponents say gays should have the same rights as others to marry and that an amendment would enshrine discrimination in the Constitution.

Amending the US Constitution is a difficult task. It can take years to win the support of two-thirds of the House of Representatives, two-thirds of the Senate and ratification by three-quarters of the 50 US states.

However, Democrats expect conservatives to push the gay marriage issue intensely in an election year in which jobs, health care and the economy are on voters' minds.

Recent polls show the issue could be a winner for Bush, who has long courted Christian conservatives as a key element of his political base.

"He has always strongly believed that marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman," McClellan said. "This is a principled decision."

Kerry, a Massachusetts native himself, says he favours civil unions for gays but not the court's marriage ruling. He also says his position is the same as that of Bush's Vice President, Dick Cheney, one of whose daughters is openly gay.

- REUTERS