A proposal to ban same-sex marriage in Indiana has received approval from the state House of Representatives and will move on to the state Senate, but it may take up to two years before the measure is put to voters by a statewide ballot.

The proposed constitutional ban, House Joint Resolution 3, passed 57-40 on Tuesday night and moves next to the state Senate judiciary committee. Because of disagreements over the exact language, the ban may not appear before Indiana voters until 2016.

“The fact is, we have not dismantled this bomb,” said House minority leader, Democrat Scott Pelath. “We’ve simply placed a longer fuse on it before it detonates in all of our faces.”



House lawmakers amended the bill Monday, removing a sentence that would have banned civil unions and could have blocked some legal protections for same-sex couples, including their ability to receive benefits from employers. The amended bill passed the House in a 57-40 vote, but lawmakers in the Senate are expected to move to re-insert the sentence. Republicans control both chambers of the Indiana legislature.



A Senate committee hearing is expected take up the issue in mid-February. If the committee approves the bill, it then faces a vote in the full state Senate, where it could still be amended.



To authorize a constitutional amendment in Indiana, a measure must be approved in two consecutive legislative sessions before being placed on a statewide ballot. By removing the sentence, lawmakers may have further delayed the referendum from being put to a public vote.



Any changes made in the Senate have to either be approved by House author Eric Turner, who would next send it to the House for another vote, or he can send it to a House-Senate conference, where legislators would have to agree on the final text.

The amendment easily passed the Senate with a vote of 40-10 in 2011. If approved in this legislative session, the measure's fate will be decided by Indiana voters in either the upcoming November midterm election or in the 2016 election.

Amendment supporters are pushing for the bill to make it on the November ballot, but that may only happen if the sentence blocking civil unions is included in the bill with the support of the House.

Bryan Corbin, press secretary for state attorney general Greg Zoeller, said there is no legal precedent for such a case.

“Without any case law directly on point, differences of legal opinions undoubtedly will result among private outside lawyers advocating for certain positions,” Corbin told the Indianapolis Star.

• This story was amended on 29 January to clarify a statement by Bryan Corbin about the ban's chances of making it onto a state ballot this year.