NEWS & ANALYSIS

Preserve Marriage Now!

By Len Munsil
June 18, 2004

We are reaching a critical point in the battle to preserve marriage.

On May 17, the state of Massachusetts began to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples as a result of an activist ruling supported by a slim majority of Massachusetts Supreme Court justices. As of late June, about 2,500 marriages have taken place, dozens of them involving homosexuals from other states, including Arizona.

The only way to preserve marriage in the United States as the union of one man and one woman is to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Despite public opinion polls indicating that Americans by a more than 2-to-1 margin favor such an amendment, Congress has been slow to move.

Finally, it appears a vote will occur in the United States Senate in mid-July. Unfortunately, many senators still need convincing, and have tried a variety of excuses to justify their unwillingness to cross powerful homosexual activist groups.

Why is this amendment needed? Here are some responses to some of the excuses given by our elected officials:

Why must we amend the Constitution? Right now, the Constitution is being amended already by activist judges who are creating a “right to gay marriage” that is not listed in the Constitution. (If you don’t believe me, you can look it up … you won’t find anything in the Constitution about a right to gay marriage.) If we do nothing, we will have allowed judges to unilaterally amend the Constitution in a way never intended by its Framers or by the American people. This unwanted and uninvited amendment will radically alter the nation’s foundational institution – the family.

Isn’t marriage a “state’s rights” issue? Yes it was, until activist courts began to take away the rights of states to decide their marriage laws. If a federal judge in Arizona concludes that the Constitution requires us to grant marriage licenses to homosexuals, there is nothing our state can do about it. In any event, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the ultimate exercise of state’s rights – it requires two-thirds of all Congressmen and Senators, who represent individual states, to approve it. Then it requires two-thirds of all state legislatures to support it. An amendment only happens if individual states approve of it in a big way!

How does letting homosexual marry affect me? This is one of the biggest deceptions of this whole debate. We don’t enact laws for society based on their affect on each individual, but upon the entire nation and community. Just listen to Gary Bauer of American Values as he explains the impact on our nation of allowing homosexuals to marry:

“The words 'husband' and 'wife' will be meaningless. Homosexual adoption will be instantly legalized and generations of children will be raised in wholly unnatural environments – deprived of ever having the benefit of a mother and a father. The public schools will teach your children that two men "marrying" each other are morally equivalent to one man and one woman. It's legal, so it must be okay! Our kids will be taught how to perform 'safe sodomy' in their sex education classes. Churches will be pressured to either abandon the Scriptures or lose their tax exempt status if they refuse to 'marry' homosexuals. That would be discrimination, after all! … There will be tremendous economic consequences. Homosexual 'spouses' will suddenly be entitled to health insurance benefits and given the high rates of disease and other medical issues associated with the lifestyle, all of us will pay even more for health insurance. And there's Social Security. Homosexual 'spouses' will be entitled to Social Security retirement and survivors' benefits. Will the government have to settle a massive class action lawsuit by all those out there who have been denied these benefits because they couldn't legally marry before? What if two heterosexual men want to 'marry' for the benefits? Would that be legal too? Once we open the definition of marriage up to something other than the union of one man and one woman, there is no legal or moral reason to continue the prohibition against polygamy and polyamory – group marriage. Polygamists are already suing because the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas said states had no right to legislate based on morality! Is this the future America you want for your children and grandchildren?”

The time is now to flood elected officials with calls and emails in support of the Marriage Protection Amendment!

In Arizona, Sen. Jon Kyl has been actively working with us and with others to move the Amendment forward for many months, so we do not need to contact his office.

But Sen. John McCain remains undecided on whether to support the amendment, and needs to hear from as many of his constituents as possible. Please call or email Sen. John McCain and urge him to sign on as a co-sponsor and then vote in favor of the Marriage Protection Amendment S.J.RES.30. You can reach him through our website at www.azpolicy.org or by calling his office at 202-224-2235.

Massachusetts is already issuing homosexual marriage licenses, and before long Arizona will face a new legal challenge to our law that preserves marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The time for action is now!  Please call or email Sen. McCain today, and forward this to as many people as possible and urge them to do the same.

Len Munsil is an attorney and President of The Center for Arizona Policy (www.azpolicy.org).