Harrisburg, Pa. - A state lawmaker today introduced legislation that would offer "full and equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania."

Senate Bill 935 - sponsored by Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Delaware/Montgomery - would change the legal definition of marriage to "a civil contract between two people who enter into matrimony."

Pennsylvania law currently defines marriage as "a civil contract by which one man and one woman take each other for husband and wife."

The legislation would also recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. It would not require religious institutions to recognize any marriages they do not wish to sanction.

"Marriage is a fundamental bedrock of our society," Leach said at a rally supporting his measure. "It is good for society for both straight and gay people to be married. Married people are more healthy, successful, and productive."

The Pennsylvania for Marriage coalition, which opposes same-sex marriages, said in a statement that it "agrees with the citizens of the Commonwealth who support marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

"Thirty states have given the citizens the opportunity to define marriage through a ballot referendum and we believe the people of Pennsylvania should be afforded the same opportunity," the statement read.

Same-sex marriage is currently legal in Connecticut, Iowa and Massachusetts and are expected to begin in Maine and Vermont in September and in New Hampshire on January 1. New York and the District of Columbia do not allow the marriages, but recognize those from other states.

California allowed same-sex marriages from June to November 2008; when voters approved a referendum limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples under the state's constitution.

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