Sensing the political winds were not in their favor, Republican state senators dedicated to enshrining discrimination in Pennsylvania's constitution on Tuesday tabled a bill that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.

But there's little doubt this GOP bigotry bid will be back.

As late as Tuesday morning supporters of the constitutional amendment were looking forward to a floor vote that again would call into question the Senate's collective judgment on what legislation best serves Pennsylvanians.

The bill had been sent to the floor out of the Senate Appropriations committee where York County Republican Sens. Michael Waugh and Gibson Armstrong, sadly, were among the 18 Republicans voting to approve -- property tax, mass transit, education funding and health care problems aside -- the "marriage amendment."

But having been told in no uncertain terms that such clearly anti-gay mischief had no sense in the state House, senators supporting the bill tabled it later Tuesday, meaning that's it for the year.

No doubt the supporters of such institutionalized bias will return, but any constitutional amendment requires the approval of two sitting legislatures before being put to a statewide referendum.

Time to get back to problems at hand, one would think.

Tabling the vote halts in place, for the moment, the appeal to base voter instincts over the marriage amendment.

The cultural fabric of the state clearly is not in peril. Since 1966 the state constitution has

Advertisement
defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

But the Republican pandering should be no mystery. If the GOP is to appear as the people's champion, then it's clearly necessary to create a bogeyman -- in this case gay individuals who may seek same-sex marriage or even heterosexuals seeking civil unions.

A constitution should enshrine all people's right not to be discriminated against. The Senate's "marriage amendment" remains a pathetic attempt to instead enshrine bigotry.