Gay marriage foes eye new petition

A leading conservative group, which has been in discussion with the Romney administration, is readying a push for an outright ban on same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

The move could significantly alter the debate on Beacon Hill over same-sex unions this year and undercut support for a compromise measure approved by the Legislature last year that outlawed gay marriage but established civil unions.

Kris Mineau, the president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said the group plans to unveil the new strategy next month, but he would not elaborate. However, legislators said that they have been briefed by the group about a proposal to mount a new citizens petition campaign to place a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage on the 2008 ballot.

Mineau said he and his group are adamantly opposed to creating a civil unions system for gay couples. ''We've got a new strategy to deal with the situation," he said.

Mineau said his group has been in contact with Governor Mitt Romney's deputy chief of staff, Peter Flaherty, about the new strategy. ''We've having a good dialogue," Mineau said.

The compromise that bans same-sex marriage and establishes civil unions must pass the Legislature once more to reach the 2006 ballot. But an alternative amendment to ban gay marriage could reach voters no sooner than 2008, possibly sidelining the issue while Romney decides whether to seek reelection or run for president.

Romney opposes civil unions, but supported the amendment approved last year because, he said, it was the best option at the time to continue a legal challenge to same-sex marriage. But the governor said in an interview last month that he was open to exploring other options to the amendment before the Legislature. His communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, recently acknowledged that aides in the governor's office and the Massachusetts Family Institute have been discussing strategy on the same-sex marriage issue.

Romney's record of backing the current amendment has opened him up to attacks from social conservatives. During political trips this year, he has emphasized his opposition to both civil unions and same-sex marriage, drawing criticism from Democrats who say he is reinventing himself as a conservative to run for president.

The Massachusetts Family Institute's plans would allow Romney to avoid a politically awkward position similar to that faced by John F. Kerry, who was accused of flip-flopping on the Iraq war and other issues. Romney invoked that image when he insisted in last month's interview that ''I'm not pulling a John Kerry, playing both sides of the issue."

Fehrnstrom confirmed that the governor's staff has been communicating with the conservative group since the Supreme Judicial Court legalized same-sex marriage in November 2003.

''As the governor has said, he would have preferred an amendment that simply banned same-sex marriage and left it to the Legislature to decide what benefits to extend to gay couples," Fehrnstrom said. ''If the Massachusetts Family Institute brings forward a new amendment, we'll certainly take a look at it, but it would be premature to speculate on what will happen."

One lawmaker -- House minority leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., Republican of North Reading -- said that he was briefed earlier this year by the Massachusetts Family Institute on its strategy, but that he had concerns about the approach. Jones said the group at the time had not officially adopted the strategy.

He said an initiative petition, while needing only 50 votes in the Legislature, faces huge hurdles, including a tough fight just to persuade lawmakers to put it on the agenda of its constitutional convention.

''It's worth it from their perspective, I suppose, but the hurdles are more daunting than they think they are," Jones said. In 2002, a petition banning same-sex marriage died in a constitutional convention on Beacon Hill when Senate president Thomas F. Birmingham refused to take up the issue. Last year, Jones voted against the amendment now before the lawmakers.

Mineau said the political dynamics are far different now, because same-sex marriage has a much higher profile than in 2002. ''It's a new era," he said.

To get a petition before a joint session of the House and Senate meeting as a constitutional convention, the Massachusetts Family Institute and its supporters would have to gather 65,825 signatures of certified voters next fall. It then must muster 50 votes in two successively elected Legislatures, beginning in 2006.