Gay rights activists circled the Statehouse Monday morning carrying caskets in a symbolic mourning of what will happen if the amendment passes. The same morning, the House Judiciary Committee voted 9-3 to send Senate Joint Resolution 7, the first step in the amendment process, to the Full House.

A final vote could come as soon as this week.

"I believe the people of Indiana want to define marriage as one man and one woman, and I ask you to give them the chance," said Republican Rep. P. Eric Turner, who introduced the resolution at the committee hearing.

Opponents claimed the amendment is about politics and discrimination rather than strengthening traditional marriage and families.

"This legislation is totally unnecessary and is being forced down our throats for no other reason than to make hay for future political campaigns," said Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, who voted against the resolution. "Our constitution should be above politics -- period."

Defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, the amendment also states that neither the constitution nor any other Indiana law may be "construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."

The pending vote comes just one day after a judge in San Francisco determined it was unconstitutional to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry and many in Indiana believe the shift of focus toward legalizing gay marriage in states like California and Connecticut may play a role in shaping how the Indiana vote pans out.

If it passes the House, the resolution must be approved again by both branches of a separately elected General Assembly and then put up for a public referendum. The next newly elected General Assembly will convene in 2007, and the earliest the amendment could go to voters is November 2008.

The Senate approved a similar resolution last year but Democrats, who then controlled the House, refused to call it for a vote. That prompted Republican legislators to walk out in a protest that brought the General Assembly to a standstill for more than a week.