“Ohio voters likely will have an opportunity to vote on a state constitutional amendment for equal marriage rights next November. Athens native and Ohio University graduate Ian James ’89, a co-founder of Freedom to Marry Ohio, said Tuesday the group has met its petition threshold for the ballot,” reports the Athens News. James who earned a B.A. in Political Science from the Ohio University College of Arts & Sciences in 1989.
Ian James ’89
James, who graduated from Athens High School in 1984 and Ohio University in 1989, said Tuesday that Freedom to Marry is continuing to collect signatures with the goal of getting 1 million Ohioans signed on to support the constitutional amendment.
The amendment itself is only 46 words long, and if passed would become the shortest amendment in the state’s history.
It has three central provisions: Allow two consenting adults freedom to enter into marriage regardless of gender; give religious institutions freedom to determine whom to marry; and give religious institutions protection to refuse to perform a marriage.
“That’s really the winning combination, allowing people to marry the one they love while also giving houses of worship the legal immunity to refuse to perform or recognize a marriage,” he said.
WOUB interview with him on Freedom to Marry Ohio.
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