WASHINGTON (AP) — With little hope of success, Senate Republicans pledged yesterday to forge ahead with a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages.

Democratic opponents said they had more than 40 votes against the amendment, which needs 67 to pass.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) acknowledged that Democrats would stage a filibuster but said, "This is so serious, sociologically and in so many other ways, that we do need to vote on it on the floor, one way or another."

Senate Democrats said the GOP is playing politics with the highly contentious issue, by forcing a vote in mid-July, right before the Democratic National Convention, where Sen. John Kerry will receive his party's presidential nomination.

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"This is not about the sanctity of marriage. This is about preserving a Republican White House and Senate," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose state is the only one to recognize gay marriages, urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass the amendment banning same-sex unions, even as former Rep. Bob Barr, who wrote a federal law denying recognition to such marriages, said that law was sufficient.

Barr, a Georgia Republican who is opposed to gay marriages, told the committee that the Constitution shouldn't be used as a vehicle to strangle states' rights. His remarks suggested that some of the strongest opposition to the proposed amendment may come from conservatives who abhor gay unions.

"If we begin to treat the Constitution as our personal sandbox, in which to build and destroy castles as we please, we risk diluting the grandeur of having a constitution in the first place."

The issue has flared since November, when the Massachusetts high court ruled that prohibiting gay couples from marrying violates the state's constitution. The Massachusetts Legislature voted in March to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriages but allow civil unions.