In 2005, when the state legislature voted to hold a public referendum on the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment, Equality Alabama's chair Howard Bayless said the legislators were "meddling into the lives of families. The government is deciding what our families are and what families are made of, and to me that's unconscionable." Before the referendum, Equality Alabama opened offices in Montgomery and Birmingham and sponsored programs to increase LGBT visibility and attempt to sway voters. The amendment passed, however, by an 81% margin in favor of forbidding recognition of same-sex marriages and civil unions.DOMAwatch.org - Alabama Alliance Defense Fund. 2006. Accessed February 4, 2011.
