Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, R-Utah, helped Republicans overwhelmingly pass a bill Tuesday to ensure that the federal government does not recognize same-sex "marriage."
And they helped barely defeat - by just one vote - a job anti-discrimination bill that Republicans said could lead to hiring quotas for gays.The Senate voted 85-14 to pass the Defense of Marriage Act, which affirms the federal definition of marriage - that is, a union between only one man and one woman.
It defeated the anti-discrimination bill on a 50-49 vote, only because Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., was absent due to his 33-year-old son's 12-hour cancer surgery. If the vote had tied, Democrats were ready to have Vice President Al Gore cast his allowed tie-breaking-only vote in favor of the bill.
The vote on the Defense of Marriage Act - which President Clinton has said he will now sign - came the same day as Hawaiian state courts resumed ordered re-hearings on whether three homosexual couples should be allowed to marry.
Many Republicans worried that if Hawaiian courts allow same-sex marriages, gay couples from other states would travel there for such unions, which their home states might be forced to recognize. It could also lead them to claim federal benefits now reserved for those in traditional marriages.
"Veterans' benefits, labor policies, federal health and pension benefits and Social Security benefits are just a few of the areas which could be affected if the Defense of Marriage Act is not enacted," Bennett said. He noted it also allows states to choose for themselves whether to recognize same-sex marriage.
Bennett said he believes the debate was not so much about tolerance of gays but whether they should be given preference under the law.
"Although I strongly believe that a government which values freedom must not allow those who are different to be persecuted, I also believe that it is appropriate for the government to choose those actions it wishes to encourage," he said.
However, supporters such as Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said, "I regard this bill as a mean-spirited form of Republican legislative gay-bashing, cynically calculated to try to inflame the public eight weeks before the Nov. 5 election."
In the debate on the bill designed to protect gays from job discrimination, co-sponsors such as Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Paul Simon, D-Ill., had argued for days that homosexuality is more of an inborn trait because of genetic disposition than a chosen behavior - and therefore should not suffer discrimination.
However, Hatch and others argued it is a chosen behavior. "Sexual orientation involves conduct, not immutable non-behavioral characteristics," he said, adding discrimination in some cases for public homosexual conduct should be allowed.
"If a school district wanted to dismiss or decline to hire a male teacher, for example, who engages in romantic, physical displays of affection in public with his male partner, this bill makes such a dismissal or refusal illegal - unless the school district will do the same regarding a male teacher's equivalent display of romantic affection for his wife or girlfriend," Hatch said.
He added that it could allow the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to order companies to collect statistics on the sexual orientation of employees - and companies found to be not hiring enough gays might be sued.
However, Kennedy argued, "We are all aware of the shameful and often vicious discrimination against gays and lesbians in our society," and he said the time has come to end it.
On that bill, 45 Republicans and five Democrats voted against it, while 41 Democrats and eight Republicans voted for it.