Churches and activists in Massachusetts, U.S., have launched a drive to gather enough signatures to place a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts on the 2008 ballot.

|TOP|Massachusetts is the only U.S. state to allow gay couples to wed, after a law was passed by the State’s Supreme Judicial Court in 2003. Vermont and Connecticut both recognise civil unions.

Rev. Walter Waldron, who leads St. Patrick Church in Boston, has rallied behind the campaign against homosexual marriage.

“It just seems so strange for me to stand here today and preach what I think is so obvious: marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said in the Associated Press. “It’s not just our faith. It’s for the good of society.”

Organisers said Sunday they had collected some 25,000 signatures since Sept. 21 and thousands after the launch of the drive this week. It is hoped that around 65,825 certified signatures can be gathered by Nov. 23, reports the Boston Globe.

“We’re a good third of the way there,” said Larry Cirignano, executive director of CatholicVote.org, a Boston-based group that is helping to coordinate the effort. Mr Cirigano was present at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston for Mass on Sunday where gay rights protestors were gathered outside.

|QUOTE|The petition still found scores of supporters, however, to give their signatures: “This has been great. It’s a good start. There’s no question we’re going to have the numbers.”

The petition has received the full support of the state’s four bishops as well as former Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn who said church officials have an obligation to “speak out on important issues in the civic arena”.

“The marriage petition is not against gays but for children,” he said. “We believe that a loving family with a mother and a father is the best environment for children to be brought up in.”

Marc Solomon, political director of MassEquality.org, expects the campaigners to exceed their target or around 120,000 signatures. He said: “It wouldn’t surprise me if they collect way more than that, given the intensive focus of the church.”

Meanwhile in Connecticut, Stephen Bennet, Executive Director and founder of Stephen Bennett Ministries, has come out in firm opposition to the state’s new law legalising homosexual unions, which came into effect on Oct. 1.

“This is a very sad day for my home State of Connecticut,” commented Mr Bennet. “While all human beings deserve to be treated with love and respect, all behaviours do not need to be tolerated. Just because a State legalises something, does not make it morally right.”

He continued: “Contrary to my State’s beliefs, homosexual behaviour is far from “natural and normal”.”

Mr Bennett vowed to work even more fervently in educating people across the U.S. about the “truths and dangers of the homosexual lifestyle”.

Mr Bennett, who was actually homosexual for 11 years before returning to a heterosexual life in 1992, campaigns against the dangers of homosexuality with his wife Irene around the world. The husband-wife team also councils homosexuals wishing to overcome their same-sex attractions, and also provides support for their families.

He said: “I saw how my homosexual lifestyle nearly killed me – and I also know the truth that complete change is completely possible. Today I am the heterosexual man I was created to be. No one is born “gay” – and frankly, there’s nothing “gay” about being “gay”.”