Bill by Hawkins would keep gay marriages out of state

COLUMBIA -- State Sen. John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg, introduced a bill Thursday that he says strengthens South Carolina's ban on same-sex marriages.

The bill, similar to legislation introduced in the state House last week, prohibits South Carolina from recognizing same sex marriages performed in other states. South Carolina passed a law in 1996 banning same sex marriages.

"Clearly members of the same sex can't get married here," Hawkins said. "But we don't want to have someone who was married in Massachusetts or San Francisco come to South Carolina and get us involved in a court fight."

Joyce Harrison, a past president of the Spartanburg chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), said she was disappointed that Hawkins would "seek to deny the civil rights of South Carolina citizens."

"This is a civil rights issue, not offering special rights, but equal rights to a minority group in our state," Harrison said.

Meg Barnhouse, a minister at Spartanburg's Unitarian Universalist Church, said all of the state's citizens should be allowed to marry. "And gay people are citizens as well as heterosexuals," she said.

Robert W. Dalton can be reached at 562-7223 or

bob.dalton@shj.com.

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