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House sets hearing on same-sex marriage
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Posted on Jun 06 2004
The House of Representatives will conduct a public hearing on June 22 on the proposed measure that seeks to amend the CNMI Constitution to ban same sex marriage in the CNMI.
House Legislative Initiative 14-3, introduced by House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, aims to restrict the conduct of marriage to between people of opposite sexes only.
Fitial earlier said that, since the CNMI is predominantly Catholic, there would hardly be any opposition to the proposal. Some individuals, however, have already expressed opposition to the measure.
“That’ll be interesting if there’s actually someone opposing it,” said Fitial, reiterating that marriage as taught by the church should be between a man and a woman.
HLI 14-3 essentially seeks to amend Section 5 of Article II of the Constitution by adding a new subsection (e) to limit legislative authority in enacting laws relating to marriage.
The proposed section reads: “It is the public policy of the Commonwealth to protect the unique relationship of marriage and that only the union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in the CNMI and the legislature may enact no law inconsistent with the public policy on marriage.”
The issue has become a political hot button in the U.S. mainland, where some states and cities in the U.S. mainland have started recognizing gay marriages even as its validity continue to be debated and challenged.
San Francisco in California and Boston have started sanctioning marriage unions between same-sex partners since February this year.
