Most of the damage that will be caused by this far-reaching amendment is covered in depth on Indiana Equality's website.

Included are negative effects on the economy, potential legal challenges to employers, and negative effects on the state's higher education and the subsequent retention of graduates.

While IAN opposes this amendment in its entirety and will actively fight it on grounds of discrimination and bigotry, part B is of particular concern, even for those who may currently be indifferent to or even opposed to same-sex marriage.

The language "legal incidents of marriage," in addition to providing for the permanent denial of civil unions or legal recognition of any kind for Indiana's same-sex couples, is legally untested, and its effects could be far-reaching. What exactly are the "legal incidents of marriage"?

In other words:

Placing untested legal language into the state constitution is asking for trouble.

In other states where amendments with similar language have passed, the courts are bulging with cases ranging from attempts to force companies to stop offering domestic partner benefits, to challenges to domestic battery laws claiming they no longer apply to unmarried couples (both same-sex and opposite sex).

"What's particularly ironic here," states Dr. Ellen Andersen, assistant professor of political science at IUPUI, "is that one of the main justifications for SJR 7 has been to protect Hoosiers from 'activist' judges. Yet the amendment in its current form is an open-ended invitation for judges to decide what this amendment means."

In a shocking case in Ohio, a judge recently ruled that domestic violence charges cannot be filed against unmarried heterosexual couples because of Ohio's new constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and the "incidents of marriage."

While other cases are still working their way through courts, the Ohio case is definitive: a far-reaching Constitutional Amendment intending to ban same-sex marriage has been successfully used as a defense by the batterer in a domestic violence case.

While IAN will actively and unequivocally oppose this amendment in its entirety on principle, those whose feelings may not be as strong as ours need to know that there are additional serious ramifications for all Hoosiers, both gay and straight, should this amendment pass.

What Can I Do? >>