By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

BELLEVUE - Two years ago, Michael Noyola and Frank Izquierdo decided to legally change their last names to reflect the nearly two decades they have spent together.

The men, who met at college 18 years ago through a mutual friend and fell in love right away, considered several options before deciding that "Noyola-Izquierdo" had a nice ring to it.

It was an easy decision for the pair to become involved in an effort to defeat a ballot initiative that would amend Kentucky's constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

Opponents say the amendment could also restrict legal rights for unmarried couples. And the men want to make sure voters understand their cause.

"We've wanted to get married for 18 years," Michael Noyola-Izquierdo said at St. John's United Church of Christ at the start of a local campaign against the ballot initiative.

Volunteers for the group, Vote No on the Amendment, plan to knock on doors across Kentucky until the Nov. 2 election as part of their campaign.

"When you take the time and courage to talk to them at their door, people listen," said Kat Goodman of Henderson, a field organizer for the group.

"When they listen, they think, and when they listen and think, it gives you an in-road to their heart," Goodman said.

The measure ended up on the ballot this spring after same-sex marriages were conducted in San Francisco and other cities, said Kent Ostrander, who helped lead the push for the amendment.

"Maverick judges and renegade mayors redefined marriage without allowing the people to have a voice," said Ostrander, executive director of the Family Foundation of Kentucky.

Same-sex unions pose a threat to children, Ostrander said, because such a relationship denies them either a mother or a father.

"How can two men teach a young girl how to be a lady, wife and mother, (and) how can two women teach a young boy how to become a man, husband and father?" Ostrander asked.

He said marriage has been degraded over the past 30 years, and efforts to promote the institution have encouraged some to ask for the right to marry.

"A number of groups want a piece of it to benefit themselves or fit their agendas," Ostrander said.

Allowing same-sex unions would not change the definition of marriage, said Michael Noyola-Izquierdo, only expand it.

"It's still a committed relationship between two people who aren't related," he said.

"There are threats (to marriage) out there, but I don't see how Frank and I exchanging rings is one," Noyola-Izquierdo said.