WASHINGTON, June 22 (UPI) -- Massachusetts' Republican Gov. Mitt Romney Tuesday urged Congress to approve a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriages.
Romney, whose state is only one in the union to recognizes gay marriages, told a Senate Judiciary Committee a federal constitutional ban is needed to help stop the spread of gay marriage across the country resulting from the actions of activist courts.
"It is not possible for the issue to remain solely a Massachusetts issue, it must now be confronted on a national basis," said Romney.
Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of Senate Constitutional Subcommittee, echoed the sentiment, which is the overriding view among Republicans in the Senate.
"The idea that the states can maintain their democratically enacted traditional marriage laws, given the judicial effort to overturn them at the federal level, is quaint," Cornyn said.
But at the same hearing, former Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., voiced the competing conservative view that meddling with the U.S. Constitution is not a good idea.
"We meddle with the Constitution to our own peril," Barr said.
Senate GOP leaders are expected to bring a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage up for a vote in July.
While not expected to be approved, such a vote would force the issue into forefront of the presidential election debate.
