Gay marriage loses again

last updated 8 January 2015

Baton Rouge

By a nearly 4-to-1 margin, Louisiana voters this week approved an amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage. Rep. Steve Scalise, a Republican state legislator, called the lopsided victory a resounding endorsement of “traditional marriage.” The amendment was backed by the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, hundreds of Protestant ministers, and the Louisiana Family Forum. Louisiana is now the second state, after Missouri, to change its constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman; both states were reacting to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Civil rights groups said they would challenge the ban in court.