The version Bush is currently backing

Here's the version Dubya is currently backing, as of the most recent source I had:

Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.

My take: this bans same-gender marriage outright. It also exempts the relationships of same-gender couples from all equal-protection clauses, and from the full-faith-and-credit clause of the US Constitution, making any "civil unions" that do pass muster under this amendment essentially non-portable. I think some civil union laws in individual states can pass muster, but they won't be recognised by the federal government, or other states, and constitutional protections afforded to opposite-gender pairings won't be afforded to ours. So that's deeply vile, but it's not a complete and total outright ban. So expect that this will be how the "compassionate conservative" spins it.

I think I was wrong; I think it's worse than I thought.

Hm. I'm reading this again:

Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.

Let's take out the constitutional and federal parts, and leave in the part that applies specifically to the possible actions of states:

[No]... state... law... shall be shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.

I think I'm wrong. I think it'll be used to ban civil unions, too, because any state law that conferred legal incidents of marriage could fall under this clause. So only a state civil unions law that provided none of the benefits of marriage would be allowable under this reading.

That message will be difficult to communicate.

obvious but necessary

Marriage is love.

( And a quiz! )