House keeps ‘opposite sex’ wording
Kansas Republicans on Monday rejected an attempt by Democrats to change state laws that require marriage to be between a man and a woman.
While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that states must recognize same-sex marriages, the Kansas Constitution and state statutes refer to marriage as between opposite sexes.
House Bill 2177 would have removed from statute the term “who are of the opposite sex” when defining the parties to a marriage contract and replace the term “take each other as husband and wife” with “desire to be married.” It would also would have cut the phrase, “It is the strong public policy of this state only to recognize as valid marriages from other states that are between a man and a woman.”
The bill was introduced in 2023 by three openly LGBTQ members of the Kansas House. But the bill never got a hearing.
Ahead of the last regular week of session, Rep. Brandon Woodard, D-Lenexa, made a motion to withdraw the bill from committee. House rules allow such motions if a committee hasn’t acted on a bill within 10 work days.
Woodard made the motion on Wednesday “for the reason that no hearing has taken place since the bill was introduced Jan. 25, 2023 — 427 days ago — and that an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States wants to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges.”
In a concurring opinion on the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas said the high court should “reconsider” and “correct the error” in three other cases, including two that established rights to engage in gay sex and for same-sex couples to marry.
On Monday, Woodard’s motion failed 43-61, with a handful of Republicans joining Democrats. It needed 70 votes, which is seven more than a simple majority in the chamber of 125 representatives.
There was no debate over the motion.
How did Topeka representatives vote?
Yeas: Reps. John Alcala (D), Jesse Borjon (R), Kirk Haskins (D), Vic Miller (D), Tobias Schlingensiepen (D) and Virgil Weigel (D).
Nays: Reps. Ken Corbet (R) and Kyle McNorton (R). Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd .