SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Two state representatives are calling for the Illinois Constitution to be amended so it spells out that only marriages between men and women would be legal.

“The intent of the bill is to define what marriage is in Illinois — the union between a man and a woman,” said Rep. William J. Grunloh (D-Effingham), who filed the proposed constitutional amendment the day after a similar proposed amendment was filed by Rep. Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth).

“That’s my personal belief and I think the belief of the majority of my constituents and, I think, the belief of the majority in Illinois,” Grunloh said.

The gay rights group Equality Illinois blasted the proposal.

“This amendment is nothing more than an act of bigotry and an attempt to demean and degrade gay Illinoisans,” Rick Garcia, the group’s director, said in a news release.

Grunloh said his proposed amendment, which was suggested recently by a constituent, is in part a response to a split ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court that decreed it unconstitutional to bar same-sex couples from the rights and responsibilities of marriage.

“I don’t get into what rights they (gays) should have,” he said. “I am saying a marriage is a union of a man and a woman.”

Such a constitutional amendment must be approved by three-fifths majority in both the House and the Senate, after which it would be put on the ballot for voters to decide. Grunloh said he hoped that his bill would make it through the General Assembly in time to be put on the November ballot.

In 1996, then-Gov. Jim Edgar signed legislation that reinforced the state’s prohibition against same-sex marriages.