IS THE SAME-SEX AMMENDMENT IN GEORGIA FALLING BY THE WAYSIDE?         
Thursday, March 18, 2004

Time is running out for the 2004 session of the Georgia General Assembly, and as you might guess, S.R. 595 that prohibits same-sex marriage in the Georgia Constitution, may fail to get passed.

Rep. Jeanette Jamieson (D) from Toccoa, Georgia, has taken the lead in a Democrat effort in the State House to pass a watered down Constitutional ban on gay marriage. Days left in the session are numbered and she probably is hoping to run out of time.

Jamieson’s bill is a false bill that supports gay marriage. Her bill gutted the Republican bill to place a ban on same-sex marriage in the Constitution. Her bill, and this is not made clear to Georgia citizens, does not contain the language that restricts domestic partnership benefits.

Jamieson does not care if her bill passes or not, her intention was to muddy the water and prevent the Constitutional Amendment that protects marriage from getting passed out of the House.

Rep. Calvin Smyre (D) – Columbus, Georgia and Chairman of the Rules Committee has said he will not bring the Republican S.R. 595 up until the end of the session. As of yesterday, it was not on the House calendar – so now it could die in committee. Is this the liberal Democrat intention?

The citizens in Rep. Jeanette Jamieson’s district are not told the truth. The local paper wrote her up as being courageous.  The publisher of the paper, Tom Law, publicly supported Jamieson’s efforts to stop the passage of a ban on same-sex marriage.

Without the passage of S.R. 595, we are only one judge’s opinion away
from same-sex marriage in Georgia.

S.R. 595 in its original form, needs to be reconsidered in the House immediately.
Gay-marriage supporters call for the language of tolerance, diversity and openness, but the truth of the matter is, if they are successful we will experience
an era of discrimination and intolerance like we have never before experienced. Anyone or any church, who disagrees with the same-sex marriage policy will be accused of being bigoted and discriminated against. No longer will we hear of husband and wife, it will be partner and spouse.

S.R. 595 must be passed in Georgia now.

The people of Georgia deserve the right to vote on the issue in November and express their opinion. To legalize same-sex marriage in America would change the course of this nation.