LITTLE ROCK (AP) – The head of a drive to put a same-sex marriage ban on the November general election ballot says a charge that approval of the measure could spur a violent backlash against gays and lesbians is ridiculous.

An advocate for gay and lesbian rights said that Gov. Mike Huckabee’s defense of the proposed state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage lends support to a campaign that, if successful, could stir violence against gays and lesbians.

Jerry Cox, chairman of the Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee, said that wouldn’t be the case.

“Harming anyone is a crime today and it will be a crime just the same whether or not this amendment passes,” Cox said. “I don’t see it having one bit of effect on people who commit crimes against other people.”

On his monthly radio call-in show, Huckabee said the proposed ballot initiative was necessary to quiet the din of activists looking to rewrite the nation’s social code.

The governor told a statewide audience that his was among the more than 200,000 signatures that supporters of the proposed Amendment Concerning Marriage and Civil Union turned in to get the proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot.

About 80,000 valid signatures of registered votes are required to certify the measure for the ballot. It would define marriage as only between a man and a woman.

“There are some very strong, loud activists who want to completely redefine marriage,” the governor said. “Many of us [amendment supporters] feel that it has become necessary to reaffirm the historical definition of marriage. It cannot be redefined to be something that culture wants it to be.”

Huckabee, a Baptist minister, told his radio audience there was room in society to say that it’s nobody’s business what a person’s sexual orientation is, “even though it’s not consistent with the Biblical norm of male and female.”

“It’s a different thing ... to rewrite the social code,” the governor said on his radio show before leaving for an education conference in Atlanta.

Eric Reece, director of the Arkansas Equality Network, an advocacy group for gays and lesbians, said he was saddened by the governor’s support for a proposal that Reece said would deny legal benefits to same-sex couples.

“Also, when you enact laws like the gay marriage amendment, it kind of gives license to those who are against gays and lesbians to act out in violence,” Reece said.

Reece said he had no statistics on violence against gays and lesbians in Arkansas because they aren’t kept.

Huckabee left for Atlanta immediately after his radio show to chair a conference of the Southern Region Education Board and was not immediately available to respond to Reece’s comments.

Reece said his group was undertaking a voter registration drive within Arkansas’ gay and lesbian community and an information program targeting the general population to counter the same-sex marriage amendment campaign.

Recent town hall meetings in Conway, El Dorado, Fayetteville, Jonesboro and Little Rock were part of the effort to educate the public that the proposal not only would prohibit same-sex marriages but also recognition of civil unions that qualify same-sex couples for health coverage, Social Security and other benefits, he said.

“Those couples are Arkansans. We pay the same taxes, share the same responsibilities and, therefore, should be afforded the same benefits,” Reece said.

Cox said raising such concerns was a smoke screen because the proposed amendment would not take any rights from anyone who is currently exercising them.

“It’s crafted in such a way that we are keeping things in Arkansas as they have always been,” he said. “Arkansas has never recognized same-sex marriages or civil unions, nor have any other states except Massachusetts and Vermont.”

Huckabee also spoke on the radio against another measure that could be headed for the November ballot – a proposal to extend the limits on legislators’ terms that were approved by voters in 1992.

The measure would allow members of the House of Representatives to serve six two-year terms, for a total of 12 years, and would allow state senators to serve three four-year terms. The 1992 law limits House members to three two-year terms and senators to two four-year terms.