BISMARCK -- Seven years ago, while Hawaii was in the midst of a gay marriage court case, North Dakota legislators beefed up the state’s 1890 ban on same-sex marriage, joining more than a dozen states doing the same.

Some supporters of 1997’s Senate Bill 2230 insisted it was only to prevent North Dakota law from being changed by outside forces and did not constitute “gay-bashing.”

Last year, in another bill gay families said was aimed at them, the Legislature changed adoption law to ensure religion-affiliated, state-licensed adoption agencies can’t be forced to handle adoptions for people who don’t meet an agency’s moral standards. The sponsor of Senate Bill 2188 said it was a religious freedom bill.

Robert Uebel, co-chairman of Equality North Dakota, an advocacy group for gays and lesbians, said gay families are struggling against people’s ingrained beliefs.

He said laws against gay marriage are no different from old laws prohibiting inter-racial marriage. When the last of those laws was struck down by the courts, a majority of people in the United States did not support the decision, he said.

“What we really want is the same rights as everyone else,” Uebel said.

“Opponents are fighting a losing battle,” he said. In how many courts are we starting to hear the line that prejudice is not an acceptable basis for public policy.”

Uebel said religions have the right to not marry or acknowledge same-sex couples, but the state should not be bound by religious belief.

“Supposedly in America we are about equality and equal protection under the law. It is frustrating that that part of the American dream is not open to us,” he said.

North Dakota’s 1997 “defense of marriage” bill was introduced after passage of a similar national law. Supporters said the national law was not enough to protect the state.

“Protect the state from what?” protested opponents, testifying that the bill was redundant, unnecessary and mean-spirited.

The American Civil Liberties Union told lawmakers the state’s 1890 marriage law, amended in 1943, already banned same-sex marriages because it defined marriage as “a civil contract between a male and a female” and specified the state would not recognize a marriage from another state if it was of a nature prohibited in North Dakota.

The new language of SB 2230 said the state would only recognize marriages from other states or countries if they are contracts “between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”

Opponents of the bill included gay men and lesbians and their heterosexual supporters. Former Sen. Linda Christenson, D-Grand Forks, then a member of the House, testified, “Family comes in many forms and lifestyles.”

Sponsors told them not to take it personally.

“This bill is a definition-of-marriage bill, not a gay-bashing bill,” testified one co-sponsor, Rep. Sally Sandvig, D-Fargo.

The prime sponsor, Sen. Randy Christmann, said he introduced it as a “cleanup” bill.

Another sponsor, Sen. Darlene Watne, said, “I do not look at it as gay-bashing, mean-spirited or anything of that sort. I have wonderful gay and lesbian friends and wouldn’t hurt them for the world.”

The bill passed the Senate 43-6. Just before the Senate vote, an uproar ensued when then-ACLU state director Keith Elston, who is gay, threatened in a newspaper column to “out” homosexual lawmakers if they voted for the bill.

The national ACLU director, Ira Glasser, immediately apologized to lawmakers and demanded Elston do the same.

“The ACLU does not ‘out’ people nor threaten to ‘out’ people,” Glasser wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Elston said he made a mistake.

Opponents later swayed the House Judiciary Committee, which voted 10-4 on a do-not-pass recommendation, but the House still passed it 73-18.

Last year’s adoption bill also sailed through both houses, though it was held up for weeks while House Minority Leader Merle Boucher asked Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to determine if it was constitutional. Stenehjem said it was.

SB 2188 said the state could not refuse to license an adoption agency that chose to reject certain clients on the basis of religious beliefs. In North Dakota, all adoptions go through private agencies -- most religion-affiliated.

Sen. Jerry Klein, R-Fessenden, said he sponsored the bill because of increasing pressure around the nation for agencies to conduct adoptions that violate their religious or moral policies.

During a House committee hearing, the North Dakota Catholic Conference lobbyist said the bill was aimed at single parents and homosexuals, among others.

It passed in the Senate on a 45-2 vote and in the House 72-18.

Forum reporter Jeff Baird contributed to this story

Readers can reach Forum reporter Janell Cole at (701) 224-0830