The vote

REPUBLICANS VOTING YES (57)

Arnold, Bacon, Baird, Behning, Beumer, Bosma, T. Brown, Burton, Carbaugh, Cherry, Cox, Culver, Dermody, DeVon, Friend, Frizzell, Frye, Gutwein, Hamm, Harman, Heaton, Karickhoff, Koch, Lehe, Lehman, Leonard, Lucas, Lutz, Mahan, Mayfield, McMillin, McNamara, Messmer, Morrison, Morris, Neese, Negele, Niemeyer, Ober, Price, Rhoads, Richardson, Slager, Smaltz, M. Smith, Soliday, Speedy, Steuerwald, Sullivan, Thompson, Turner, Ubelhor, VanNatter, Washburne, Wesco, Wolkins, Zent.

REPUBLICANS VOTING NO (11)

Braun, Clere, Eberhart, Heuer, Huston, Kirchhofer, Kubacki, Saunders, Torr, Truitt, Ziemke.

DEMOCRATS VOTING YES (0)

None.

DEMOCRATS VOTING NO (29)

Austin, Bartlett, Battles, Bauer, C. Brown, Candelaria Reardon, DeLaney, Dvorak, Errington, Forestal, GiaQuinta, Hale, Harris, Kersey, Klinker, Lawson, Macer, Moed, Moseley, Niezgodski, Pelath, Pierce, Porter, Pryor, Riecken, Shackleford, V. Smith, Summers, VanDenburgh.

REPUBLICANS EXCUSED (1)

Davisson.

DEMOCRATS EXCUSED (2)

Goodin, Stemler
INDIANAPOLIS— The Indiana House passed the constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage Tuesday, with the amended version now moving to the Indiana Senate for consideration.

House Joint Resolution 3 cleared the House by a 57-40 vote after several lawmakers made their case on the proposed amendment.

The Indiana House on Monday voted to strip the civil unions ban from the resolution with 23 Republicans joining Democrats to pass the amendment. If the full General Assembly passes the amended version, the earliest a constitutional amendment could go on the ballot for a statewide referendum is 2016.

Among the Southwestern Indiana delegation, the vote fell along party lines. Republican state Reps. Ron Bacon (Chandler), Wendy McNamara (Mount Vernon), Mark Messmer (Jasper), Holli Sullivan (Evansville) and Thomas Washburne (Evansville) voted for the resolution. Democratic state Reps. Kreg Battles (Vincennes) and Gail Riecken (Evansville) voted against it.

Battles said as a member of the Elections and Apportionment Committee, he was “dropped into a storm” and had less than 24 hours to prepare for the resolution’s second hearing.

Battles said placing the ban in the state constitution will force the issue into federal court.

“I’m not going to convince anyone from a moral or an emotional standpoint what is right or wrong. You got to figure that out for yourself,” Battles said. “It may be easy if you think something is dead wrong. I don’t think most of us have that positivity that surety that it’s dead wrong or dead right.”

State Rep. Bill Friend, R-Macy, told lawmakers the resolution shouldn’t be a partisan issue and the public should be allowed to weigh in because it’s a major decision.

“Let’s not make it political,” Friend said. “It’s personal. It’s emotional. It’s in your heart.”
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