CHARLESTON — An advocate of a constitutional change to define marriage in West Virginia as a union of “one man and one woman” warned Tuesday of a national push to legalize same-sex weddings.

But an acknowledged homosexual lawyer and the American Civil Liberties Union told a legislative panel no such amendment is needed, and that it would only define West Virginians as bigots.

Mindful they routinely lose by huge margins when voters decide the issue, Jeremiah Dys of the Family Policy Council said homosexual activists are resorting to the tactics of litigation and legislation to attain their demands.

“The Constitution of West Virginia belongs to its people,” Dys told Judiciary Subcommittee A before a room so packed some attendees spilled into the hallway.

“There’s no legitimate reason not to let the people decide the legal definition of marriage.”

Lawmakers took no vote on whether to send the legislation out of committee.

Without cementing the existing Definition of Marriage Act by a constitutional amendment, Dys suggested West Virginia is fair game for advocates of the homosexual lifestyle when it comes to allowed marriages.

“It’s no longer if, but when, an attempt to redefine marriage will cross the border into West Virginia,” he said.

Seth DiStefano, an organizer for the ACLU in West Virginia, maintained that no such amendment is needed, and warned the debate would be “divisive and distracting and sends a signal that West Virginians are not always free and inclusive people.”

DiStefano reminded the lawmakers that existing law forbids illegal marriages in other states and have them recognized by West Virginia law.

Law now compels a license application list the names of the “female and male parties,” and a statement that marriage is intended to be “a loving and lifelong union between a woman and a man.”

DiStefano said heterosexual marriage is protected by “multiple layers of statutory protections in this state,” and anything else would be redundant and a waste of scarce resources.

Moreover, the ACLU official said a marriage amendment flies in the face of the state’s “proud tradition” of expanding rights, as opposed to narrowing them.

“Our state’s very creation was born out of a rejection to slavery and the embracing of individual rights for all persons,” he said.

DiStefano warned the amendment could eventually bite its own supporters.

“Everyone, at some point and time, is a member of a minority class, be it age, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or otherwise,” he said.

“Making minority rights a function of popular opinion, as this resolution seeks to do, would endanger the rights of all persons because no one is a permanent member of any majority.”

Dys disagreed, saying, “Marriage is too valuable of an institution to West Virginia to subject it to attack when there is such a simple solution to its protection.”

What’s more, he contended, polls show West Virginians overwhelmingly want to vote on an amendment, at a time when same-sex advocates are gaining ground in states such as Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa.

Dys cited a recent CBS-New York Times polls showing only 33 percent of Americans support same-sex marriages, a drop of 9 percent from the last sampling.

An attorney and son of a former West Virginia University football player, Stephen Skinner, told the committee he was speaking out as “the voice for gays and lesbians,” who number 39,000 in this state.

Skinner described his group as “a voice of reason in this state that fights bigotry.”

Homosexuals have no choice in who they are because sexual orientation is decided at birth, he contended.

“All of the science — the legitimate science, not the junk science — all the legitimate science tells us that sexual orientation happens before birth,” he said.

Given multiple societal problems associated with the lifestyle, Skinner said no one would choose to be homosexual if a choice were allowed.

“There’s literally no reason other than the fact that God made us this way,” he told the panel.

“It’s our biology. It’s our genetics.”

After consulting with a family law judge recently, Skinner suggested “straight” marriages are in deep trouble — without any harm caused by homosexuals.

“Gays and lesbians don’t have anything to do with that,” he said. “We’re already disenfranchised.”

But Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense, argued that West Virginians need to vote on the matter, and that it is wrong to assume DOMA will stand up in a court challenge.

“It’s like saying, we don’t need a vaccination for swine flu, because we haven’t had an epidemic yet,” he added.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com