WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as Republicans push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Democratic Sen. Mark Dayton is pushing the other way, championing legislation that would give benefits to domestic partners of gay federal employees.

“One of my primary motivating forces in public life is what I view as injustice to people, especially people who are being actively discriminated against or treated unfairly,” said Dayton, of Minnesota. “That goes against my religious values and beliefs.”

Dayton, a Presbyterian, said opponents of homosexuality distort the Bible in making their case.

“It gets me especially mad when I come across people who are wrapping themselves in the Bible or some other religious banner and then not practicing what the Bible says over and over,” he said.

“They point to one paragraph in the Bible — Paul’s letter to the Romans — and they use that as the whole basis for this venomous condemnation of people, whereas the whole thrust of the Bible is love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, said Dayton’s comments are a slap at people who have strong religious convictions and motivations.

“In a sense he is using a religious argument to put down other people making religious arguments. He’s doing just what he accuses other people of doing,” Prichard said.

In addition to his domestic benefits bill, Dayton has co-sponsored legislation that would add sexual orientation to an existing federal hate crimes law, and to a bill that would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“He’s clearly been a supporter of the gay community for a long time,” said Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign. “We’re excited about his leadership.”

Dayton’s bill would extend health benefits, retirement benefits and life insurance to domestic partners of gay federal employees.

“To deny that part of the compensation package to people because they are gay or lesbian is discrimination,” he said. “I think it’s illegal. I think it’s wrong. To their credit, a lot of very enlightened corporations have adopted these policies” offering domestic benefits.

Openly gay lawmaker Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) first introduced the domestic benefits bill in 1997, but he did not get a Senate sponsor until last year, when Dayton agreed to take on the cause.

Dayton, who reintroduced the bill this year, has five co-sponsors, all Democrats: Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Patty Murray of Washington and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.

Despite the lack of support in the Senate, the bill isn’t out of the mainstream. A Gallup poll this year found that 62 percent of Americans think that gay domestic partners should receive the same health care and Social Security survivor benefits as married couples.

The Supreme Court last month threw out a Texas law banning gay sex. Some conservatives said they feared the ruling paved the way for legalization of same-sex marriages.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) has said that he supports a proposed constitutional amendment which would ban gay marriage in the United States.

Dayton said that while he personally believes gay people should have the right to get married, he won’t push that in the Senate because he doesn’t think this country is ready for it. But he sharply criticized Frist’s position.

“I think it’s demagoguery in search of a problem,” Dayton said. “The institution of marriage in this country is not in any way being threatened by anything.

“He’s entitled to his own views, but for the majority leader of the Senate to put this issue into the forefront of the debate when it’s totally uncalled for is just manipulative and destructive and very inappropriate, in my opinion.”

Frist’s spokesperson, Bob Stevenson, responded: “Senator Frist was simply restating what is already federal law, signed by President Clinton in the Defense of Marriage Act.” That 1996 law defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and allows states to withhold legal recognition of same-sex unions from other states.

The Defense of Marriage Act sailed through the Senate, 85-14, with even the late Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota) voting for it. Wellstone, probably the most liberal member of the Senate at the time, later wrote that that it may have been the one time in his career where he didn’t vote his conviction.

“This vote was an obvious trap for a senator like me, who was up for re-election,” Wellstone wrote in his autobiography, The Conscience of a Liberal.

But Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said Dayton isn’t likely to suffer politically for his gay rights advocacy.

“Minnesotans are pretty tolerant on these issues,” Jacobs said. “As long as he stays in the mainstream, he will do OK.”