In this issue:
- Commentary by Richard Wilkins: "We Face Not Only a Marriage Crisis, But a Constitutional Crisis As Well
- Massachusetts Roundup
- Congress Watch
- Other News Items of Interest
- We Need Your Financial Support to Help Defend Marriage and the Family
We Face Not Only a Marriage Crisis,
But a Constitutional Crisis As Well
Dear Reader,
Barring a dramatic last minute development, one that at this point seems unlikely, Massachusetts will begin issuing “same sex marriage licenses” this coming Monday, May 17th. Three days later (or sooner if couples apply for and are granted waivers of the waiting period) the first authorized “same sex marriages” will be performed in the United States.
The social and constitutional consequences will be profound.
The United States (along with our neighbor to the North, Canada) will join a handful of other countries, including the Netherlands and Denmark that grant formal legal recognition to “same sex marriage.” As a nation and a people, we will have embarked on a great social experiment that no society has ever successfully endured.
The precise consequences of redefining marriage are unknown and, at this point, unknowable. The full impact of abandoning the historic institution of marriage will only become clear in the next generation – too late to stop the experiment or fully reverse its effects. The pending redefinition of marriage, however, will not be positive.
Social historians (including the renowned British anthropologist Joseph Daniel Unwin) have documented the inevitable social consequences of the demise of marriage. Speaking to the British Psychological Society in 1935, Unwin noted that it is an “an extraordinary fact” that all successful societies for thousands of years have been founded upon “absolute monogamy” between husband and wife. Unwin noted that “in human records, there is no case of an absolutely monogamous society failing to display great [cultural] energy.” But he also ominously concluded that, once a society departs from a social norm of absolute marital monogamy, social chaos ensues within three generations.
“Same sex marriage” is fundamentally inconsistent with the idea of marriage itself. Marriage, from time immemorial, has joined a man and a woman in a lifetime monogamous relationship designed (among other things) to foster and celebrate the complementary roles of men and women and to provide the optimal environment for the bearing and rearing of children. “Same sex marriage” (which rejects sexual complementarity and is incapable of procreation) is not built on this foundation. On the contrary, it chides and derides this foundation. Accordingly, legalization of “same sex marriage” is not a minor social adjustment, a small experiment in social justice, or a simple exercise in tolerance. It destroys our most basic cultural structure.
The abandonment of marriage has constitutional repercussions as well.
Despite the mendacious claims of lawyers, law professors and judges, there is no provision in our federal constitution or in any state constitution that supports the destruction of marriage.
Nevertheless, four Justices in Massachusetts (in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health) – aided and abetted by six Justices on the United States Supreme Court (in Lawrence v. Texas) – have announced “constitutional” doctrines that spell the end of marriage.
These 10 judges have ignored the text of two constitutions, as well as the history and experience of the American people, to announce results that, in their collective judgment, improve the wording of the Massachusetts and federal constitutions. However, if the concocted, a-constitutional pronouncements of these 10 Justices are allowed to stand, not only marriage – but the basic idea of written constitutions – will have lost all meaning.
We face not only a marriage crisis, but a constitutional crisis as well.
This twin crisis demands immediate action. We must quickly amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Beginning Monday – with the first “same sex marriage” licenses issued by Massachusetts – the meaning of marriage and constitutional law (as well as the role of judges and lawyers in American democracy) may well change forever.
American society is founded upon stable marriages and a written Constitution. Defend Marriage was founded to preserve both. In the weeks ahead, we will be suggesting a number of things you can do to help.
This is a fight we must win, for our future and for our children’s future.
Sincerely,
Richard G. Wilkins
Chairman
Massachusetts Roundup
There appeared little chance that any legal or executive action would prevent Massachusetts from issuing legal “marriage” licenses to same sex couples beginning on May 17th. A federal district court judge on Thursday dismissed a complaint filed by several pro-family groups who contend that the Supreme Judicial Court had violated the state constitution in its ruling that required the legalization of same sex marriage. The groups planned an appeal.
Several localities, including Provincetown, which has a high population of homosexual residents, have rejected Governor Mitt Romney’s contention that a 1913 state law prohibited marrying any non-resident same sex couples. That law states that no marriage can be performed in the Commonwealth that would not be legal in the individuals’ state of residence. Since no other state recognizes same sex marriages, he contends that only legal Massachusetts residents of the same sex can be married. Article here.
Other localities, including Boston, have announced that they will abide by the residency requirement but will simply accept the applicants attestation that they are residents or intend to establish residency in the state. Article here.
In another interesting development, the 6,000 member International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 clarified the definition of the term “dependent spouse” in its benefit plans to mean only a person of the opposite sex. This specific exclusion of same sex “spouses” raised the possibility that other unions and employers could do the same. Article here.
Congress Watch
The number of co-sponsors of H.J.Res. 56, the House version of the Federal Marriage Amendment has reached 119 of the 435 congressmen. In the Senate, 15 senators have co-sponsored S.J.Res. 30, the Senate version. For a complete list of co-sponsors, click here.
The full Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on May 18, the day after same sex “marriages” are likely to become legal in Massachusetts, on “Preserving Traditional Marriage: A View from the States.” The hearing is expected to focus intensively on the impact of Massachusetts processing these marriage licenses. This will be the first consideration by a full committee, increasing the public profile of the issue considerably.
Other News Items of Interest
- Agape Press reports that the California bill to legalize same sex “marriages”, AB 1967 is stalled for the time being in the Assembly Appropriations Committee in an article available here.
- In “Same-Sex 'Marriage' Called A Fiscal Boon for California” CNSNews reports a University of California study that claims that the state would realize a $25 million boost in sales tax revenue from additional weddings and other sources. Available here.
- CNSNews notes the impact that growing political support for a federal amendment to define marriage is having on incumbents in “Homosexual Activist Berates Dems for Going 'Squishy' on Marriage Amendment” available here.
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