WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said on Sunday he supports the adoption of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the United States.

An amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning the recognition of gay marriage would render the subject of marriage equality mute from the perspective of American courts.

The court on Thursday ruled that the Texas sodomy law, and other laws like it in other states, violate the defendants' privacy rights under the Constitution. Frist says the court's expansive embrace of privacy threatens to make the American home a haven for criminality.

"I have this fear that this zone of privacy that we all want protected in our own homes is gradually -- or I'm concerned about the potential for it gradually being encroached upon, where criminal activity within the home would in some way be condoned," Frist told ABC's "This Week."

"And I'm thinking of -- whether it's prostitution or illegal commercial drug activity in the home . . . to have the courts come in, in this zone of privacy, and begin to define it gives me some concern

Asked whether he backed an amendment to the federal constitution that would ban any marriage in the United States except a union of a man and a woman, Frist said: "I absolutely do, of course I do.

"I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament, and that sacrament should extend and can extend to that legal entity of a union between -- what is traditionally in our Western values has been defined -- as between a man and a woman. So I would support the amendment."

Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado was the main sponsor of the proposal offered May 21 to amend the Constitution. The amendment would define marriage as strictly between a man and a woman.

The proposal would require approval by two-thirds of the House and the Senate and ratification by by three-fourths of the states to become part of the Constitution. As drafted, the proposal says:

"Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any state under state or federal law shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."

Frist said Sunday he respects the Supreme Court decision but feels the justices overstepped their bounds. "Generally, I think matters such as sodomy should be addressed by the state legislatures. . . That's where those decisions -- with the local norms, the local mores -- are being able to have their input in reflected.

"And that's where it should be decided, and not in the courts."

more to come...