AUGUSTA – The national debate over same-sex marriages rages on, but not in the Maine House where lawmakers killed a Penobscot County legislator’s proposal in its tracks Wednesday after only six minutes of debate.

Inspired by the recent Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling affirming marriages between two men or two women, Rep. Brian Duprey, R-Hampden, advanced a joint order in the House to “protect” the state’s existing defense of marriage language. The current law in Maine and 34 other states defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

The GOP lawmaker said most Massachusetts residents were probably convinced there would never be same-sex marriages in their state until “extremist” Supreme Court justices ruled otherwise. Duprey said the only way to protect Maine’s marriage definition was to amend the Maine Constitution to mirror the same statutory language. In order to move his proposal forward, Duprey asked the Legislature to order the Judiciary Committee to report out a constitutional amendment for consideration by the House and Senate.

“The American public as well as the citizens of Maine strongly oppose the legalization of same-sex marriages in poll after poll,” Duprey told his fellow legislators during a floor speech. “Failing to [respond] to them with your vote today may mean that they will not [respond] to you with their vote on Election Day.”

Duprey, a member of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, was challenged immediately by Rep. William Norbert, a Portland Democrat and Judiciary Committee chairman, who moved to kill the proposal through a parliamentary procedure known as “indefinite postponement.”

“The Judiciary Committee, like your committee, is plenty busy these days,” Norbert told the House members. “To have something like this dropped on our laps toward the end of session is not something I want.”

Six minutes after Duprey submitted his proposed constitutional amendment, the House killed the plan in a 73-63 vote that divided largely along party lines with majority Democrats prevailing.

Maine’s brief flirtation with the same-sex marriage issue was being pursued more aggressively Wednesday in neighboring New Hampshire where lawmakers there are preparing to vote March 2 on a bill that would specifically prohibit recognition of gay and lesbian marriages performed in other states. And in Massachusetts, where lawmakers have repeatedly failed to pass an amendment banning same-sex marriages, lawmakers are scheduled to resume debate on March 11.

Betsy Smith, of the Maine Gay and Lesbian Political Alliance, said Maine already has a law that defines marriage as a union of “one man and one woman” and amending the Constitution to conform with Duprey’s goal would do little to engender understanding between the homosexual and heterosexual communities.

“It would simply write discrimination into the Constitution,” she said. “Obviously, we think that’s wrong.”

Later in the afternoon, Gov. John E. Baldacci, agreed he didn’t believe a constitutional amendment was needed to address what was already spelled out under Maine law. The governor said he was unable to offer much perspective on Duprey’s argument.

“I didn’t listen to the debate,” he said. “It obviously went by so fast that I didn’t even hear it.”

After the vote to defeat the proposal, Duprey said the Democratic majority was simply “following their leader,” and that it was apparent his joint order never had a prayer when no one rose to debate the issue.

“Usually when there’s no debate, that’s the Democrats saying ‘just vote our way and don’t say anything,'” Duprey said. “They had it all canned before hand.”