BOSTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Massachusetts lawmakers went into a second day of their constitutional convention Thursday seeking a ban on gay marriages.
Legislators planned to take up a proposal to authorize civil unions, instead of formal weddings, for same-sex couples, the Boston Globe said. Two proposals that could have led to banning gay weddings in the state in 2006 failed Wednesday.
The aim is to undo the Supreme Judicial Court's decision that would make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to allow gay marriage. The ruling says gay couples can get marriage licenses beginning May 17, but the lawmakers and Gov. Mitt Romney are intent on turning them back.
"We're as divided as the Supreme Judicial Court," House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, a Democrat, told reporters. "We're as divided as the people of Massachusetts. We are as divided as the nation on this. We are doing the best we can."
