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Religious conservatives knew that the Federal Marriage Amendment wouldn't get the 67 Senate votes it needed if it went up for a vote this week. But the surprise is that it won't get any votes. Only 48 senators voted to invoke cloture on the resolution, so there was no official vote on the constitutional amendment itself (60 votes were needed). Fifty senators voted against cloture, and John Kerry and John Edwards did not vote. (Sen. Rick Santorum looks on the bright side, saying he expected only 45 votes for cloture.)

Conservatives and Republicans will surely claim that Democrats' "no" votes on cloture suggest that these Senators are against the amendment—or, it will be suggested, against protecting the traditional family—but the senators have plenty of ammunition to refute that claim. Witness today's article in The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, which began, "Both of Ohio's U.S. senators are poised to vote today in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, they said, but both are hoping they don't have to."

"We've known from the beginning that this was going to be a long fight. What we didn't know was just how little regard Senators on the left would have for the American people's will on this issue," said Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. "The Senate's vote today has left the future of marriage in the hands of unelected judges, at least for the time being. This was just round one in the debate over marriage and now that it is over, we begin training for round two. Pro-family forces have benefited from the debate over the past few days in two ways: One, every time this issue is forced into the public square, the opposition to same-sex 'marriage' among the American public grows. Second, we now know which Senators are for traditional marriage and which ones are not, and by November, so will voters in every state."

The fight for the Federal Marriage Amendment, Perkins said, " has just begun. "The effort to protect marriage has unprecedented support. Nine states are poised to have state constitutional amendments on their ballots this fall on marriage, and poll after poll shows that between 60 and 70 percent of Americans want marriage to remain one man, one woman. Americans realize that the protection of marriage is vital to the future of the family, the welfare of children and the security of our nation."

Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute also promised that the federal marriage amendment won't go away. "We're disappointed to see the Senate deliver homosexual activists a number to hang their hats on, but we're confident that state referenda across the country and upcoming House votes will clearly show that public support for marriage is on the rise," he said.

Another Concerned Women for America leader, vice president for government relations Michael Schwartz, suggested that the Senate Republican leadership made the wrong move by pressing for a vote today. "CWA has advocated a strategy that we're proud to see the House has taken up; you don't vote until you're ready to win," he said. "The votes on D.C. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the Marriage Protection Act in the House are going to be far better indicators of where we are on this issue than any vote in the partisan Senate in an election year."

Gary Schneeberger, senior manager of issues response for Focus on the Family, said that while today's vote against the vote was disappointing, his organization "is not feeling distressed or feeling defeated. This is the opening shot in a long battle to defend the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. We knew going in that this was not going to be done in a heartbeat."

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July (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48