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Kan. delegation leery of Huelskamp’s anti-gay marriage bill

Kan. delegation leery of Huelskamp’s anti-gay marriage bill

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A Republican congressman’s legislation seeking a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage has picked up more sponsors – except from his colleagues in Kansas.

U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp’s bill has picked up at least 47 co-sponsors in the House since its introduction a month ago. That includes 20 supporters added in July.

U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.)

The Hutchinson News reports that absent from the bill’s co-sponsors are other Kansans congressmen.

“I strongly believe in defending traditional marriage as between a man and a woman, and am looking at this amendment carefully,” U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, told the newspaper in a statement.

The offices of Reps. Kevin Yoder, R-Overland Park, and Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, declined to comment.

Huelskamp introduced the proposed constitutional amendment after the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling struck down the Defense of Marria ge Act.

The proposed Constitutional amendment is just a couple of sentences long: “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.”

Huelskamp’s legislation is in a subcommittee.

The bill has almost no chance of making it into law. It must pass both the House and Senate by a two-thirds margin, and must be ratified by three-fourths of the nation’s state legislatures.

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