American gays: Marriage is not some kind of social play

Voters in eleven US states voted overwhelmingly to impose constitutional bans on gay marriage, one of the hottest issues in this year's &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/politics/2000/11/06/718.html ' target=_blank>presidential election, results showed.

Returns showed that all 11 state referenda on constitutional amendments that define marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman had passed across the nation.

The measures, similar in structure across the nation, succeeded in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah, says Channel News Asia.

"The people are responding to the courts, which are increasingly trying to change the definition of marriage," said Carrie Gordon Earll, a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group. "Marriage is not some kind of social play dough that the courts can reconstruct."

&to=http:// english.pravda.ru/columnists/2002/07/31/33581.html ' target=_blank>gay rights activists vowed to challenge some of the amendments in court.