By Bruce Schreiner
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - A constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was defeated Friday in the Kentucky House after Republicans staged a walkout hours into a debate. In their absence, there were too few votes to pass the measure.

The walkout marked a strange turn of events because Republican lawmakers had been fighting to get the measure approved.

The Republican leader, Rep. Jeff Hoover, accused the Democratic majority of an "arrogant abuse of power" by curtailing debate without consideration of GOP amendments to the bill.

Republican members then filed out of the House chamber and assembled for a rally on the Capitol steps with Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher and a conservative group spearheading the push for a ban on same-sex marriages.

Democrats sat, seemingly stunned. Then some got angry.

"They took the coward's way out," said Rep. Gross Lindsay, his voice rising.

Speaker Jody Richards eventually proceeded with a roll-call vote. Sixty votes are required to approve a constitutional amendment. The roll call got to 55-10.

In theory, the House could reconsider its vote on Monday.

The source of the dispute was an effort by Democrats to entwine the gay marriage issue into a single bill with a second proposed amendment - an amendment to limit the judiciary's power to impose mandates on the General Assembly.

Republicans said lumping two amendments together was an act of sabotage and insisted it would never survive a court challenge.

Kentucky has had a law since 1996 prohibiting same-sex marriages, but proponents of the amendment said writing the prohibition into the state's Constitution was the only way to cement it.