By Greg Wright
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, one of the top elected black Republicans in the nation, urged Republican U.S. senators Thursday to pass a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, calling homosexuality "a lifestyle choice."

Blackwell told about two dozen senators that gay groups cannot argue for the same rights as minority groups.

"There is a difference between a lifestyle choice and an immutable characteristic like race or ethnicity," Blackwell said.

Bishop Keith Butler of the Word of Faith International Christian Center in Michigan joined Blackwell at the hour-long meeting in the U.S. Capitol. Butler is part of a coalition of black ministers that is disturbed that gays are linking gay marriage to the civil rights movement that ended legal discrimination against blacks.

Gays in Ohio said Blackwell's argument that homosexuality is a choice is misguided.

"I feel it is innate - it is genetic," said Leo Radel, one of the founders of Dignity, a gay rights group in Columbus. "I think the science is heading in that direction."

Meanwhile Terry Payne, chairman of Stonewall Cincinnati, a gay rights group, said a nationwide movement to give homosexuals marriage and other rights is growing despite indifference in Ohio. "He needs to be more conscious and aware," Payne said of Blackwell.

In February, Ohio enacted a law that said only a man and a woman can marry. Citizens groups in Ohio are circulating petitions to put a question on the November ballot on whether to include a gay marriage ban in the state constitution.

The constitutional ban would prevent judges from making gay marriage legal, Blackwell said. A Massachusetts court recently ruled homosexual couples should have the same rights as heterosexuals.

Senate Republicans who support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage say it has little chance of getting the 67 votes it needs to move forward when it comes up for a vote next week.

Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, went to the Blackwell meeting, but fellow Republican Sen. George Voinovich could not because he was attending a funeral in Ohio for John Stozich, the former director of the Ohio Department of Industrial Relations.

DeWine left the meeting without talking to reporters, referring questions to his staff.

DeWine and Voinovich believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, their spokespeople said.

DeWine is undecided on whether he would vote to amend the Constitution to say that, spokeswoman Amanda Flaig said.

Voinovich has said it would be difficult to pass a gay marriage ban amendment because Congress has approved just four constitutional changes in 50 years.

Instead, Voinovich said, Congress should continue to make sure the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act is upheld. That law does not require a state to recognize a gay marriage declared legal in another state.

If judges overrule state laws on gay marriage, then a constitutional amendment must be passed, Voinovich said.

E-mail gwright@gannett.com