As the Senate vote on whether or not to amend the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage nears, local agencies are urging San Diego-area political representatives at all levels to come forward and take a stand on the issue.

This July 12, when the Senate opens up the floor to debate on the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), Democratic opponents claim that they will already have 40 votes needed to defeat the amendment. To pass the Senate the amendment needs 67 out of the 100 votes that will be cast. Senate Democrats have repeatedly said the Republican Party is playing politics with the highly contentious issue, by forcing the vote right before the Democratic National Convention where John Kerry will receive his party’s nod to run for President.

While both Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, California’s elected senators, have gone on the record with their opposition to the amendment, there are concerns that some of San Diego’s representation in the House of Representatives, including Duke Cunning-ham and Duncan Hunter, will vote in favor of the amendment when it eventually is put to a vote there. Both Susan Davis and Bob Filner already have expressed their opposition to the amendment.

“It’s not looking good for the Senate, it’s not looking good perhaps in the House,” said Richard Valdez, co-chair of San Diegans Against Marriage Discrimination (SDAMD), in a recent interview. “We don’t take it for granted either way. We anticipate that it could be close. We want to be sure that we contact all of our representatives locally. Whether they have come out against it, like Filner or Davis, or whether they are for it, like Hunter and Cunningham. Contacting those folks, as well as [US Rep. Darrel] Issa, is really important to let them know how we feel because it does change week to week.”

The Center and SDAMD are spearheading an effort to get local elected leaders to go on the record with their position on the proposed amendment.

“I think that all voters, and the citizens of San Diego look to our elected officials for guidance on these issues,” Valdez said. “Whether it’s a specific city or county issue is not the point. We elect our officials to guide us to what is an appropriate position on things. It’s really important that mayors come out, supervisors come out, that city councils come out, against the amendment. We had that from the very beginning from [Mayor Richard] Daley in Chicago, [Mayor Michael] Bloomberg in New York has been fairly vocal. … Different leaders on a local level have come out and that’s really helpful for the people in the cities to have some guidance and see that their elected officials are taking a stand and that they should as well.”

To date, a handful of local elected leaders have voiced their opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment, including city councilmembers Donna Frye, Michael Zucchet and Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins, all of whom have written letters to either The Center or SDAMD expressing their views.

“I share your concern, as well as your opposition, to this misguided attempt to play politics with our Constitution,” Zucchet said in his letter to The Center. “To be clear, I oppose President Bush’s proposed federal marriage amendment. I am confident that with the organizational support of groups like the LGBT Community Center, as well as the support of millions of Americans who oppose efforts to politicize the Constitution, we will defeat this irresponsible proposal.”

The top ranking local elected official to respond to recent calls from the Gay & Lesbian Times was Ron Roberts, a member of the County Board of Supervisors who will face incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy in a runoff election this November.

In a written statement, Robert expressed his opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment and said that San Diego’s representatives in Congress should also vote against the amendment: “Laws governing marriage should remain the purview of the state. Amending the Constitution should not be done to reflect opinion of the day, nor to target one group of people.”

Roberts joins California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, and senators Dianne Feinstein and John McCain on a growing bipartisan list of those opposed to the amendment.

“We applaud Supervisor Roberts for his leadership on this issue,” said attorney Paula Rosenstein, co-chair of SDAMD, in a press release. “It is clear that he — like a majority of San Diegans — understands that amending the United States Constitution, our nation’s most sacrosanct founding document, in order to target one group for discrimination is unwise, unnecessary, and un-American.”

“Amendments to the Constitution are better used to expand individual rights,” Rosenstein continued, “— as we have done throughout our nation’s history — not to restrict them.”

To date, Mayor Murphy has not commented in favor of or against the amendment. Phone calls and emails to his re-election campaign office from the Gay & Lesbian Times were not returned.

In the past, members of the city council and board of supervisors, including Jim Madaffer, Greg Cox and Bill Horn, have commented that marriage equality is not a local issue and not one that they need to comment on. However, groups like The Center and the Coalition Against Marriage Discrimination are looking to leaders to educate voters about their positions on the issue.

“I think education is important on a bunch of different levels on a lot of different issues,” Valdez said. “Particularly on this one, the more people understand this is looking to amend the Constitution of the United States and the ramifications of that; how few amendments there have been, how this would be the first to effect a segment of Americans for the very first time in history. Those sorts of messaging points are really important to be conveyed by our local elected officials as well by all of us who are in the fight to oppose it. Because with more information, people tend to be against it, and hearing it from your elected officials who don’t have a direct relationship with the vote, being that they aren’t senators and Congress members, could show a more object view of things and people really tend to listen to that sort of thing.”