solarbird | The version Bush is currently backing (Reply)

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.