Defend Marriage: Newsletter

In this issue:

A Clean Sweep for Marriage—and a Unique Opportunity!
The Numbers for the Eleven State Clean Sweep
News Coverage and Commentary on the State Amendment Victories
Your Financial Support Helped Make Victory Possible—But We Still Have Far to Go!

Dear Defender of Marriage,

Richard G. Wilkins, Chairman What great victories on Election Day!

All of you who helped in any way deserve not just the nation’s sincere thanks but the thanks of future generations as well.

Making a “clean sweep” by convincingly passing all eleven of the state constitutional marriage amendments will be a powerful boost in building momentum for a federal marriage amendment. Last night alone, millions more Americans watching the media coverage of the election returns became better educated about the threat to marriage and what some good people in states around the country are doing to defend this critical institution. We will see more marriage amendments proposed in other states next year.

I was also interested to note the coverage the foreign press is giving this remarkable eleven-state sweep. From my years of experience defending marriage and the family at the international level I can assure you this coverage will have a significant impact internationally as well. It not only will be educational for millions around the world but it will greatly strengthen the resolve and dedication of those working to defend marriage in their own countries as well as at the international level.

As important and useful as these state victories are, however, they pale in comparison to the importance of President Bush winning a decisive mandate in his successful re-election campaign. It is hard to overstate the importance of having this genuinely moral and good man who is so personally committed to defending marriage leading this country for four more years.

President Bush has made his support for marriage and the federal marriage amendment a major theme of his campaign, and has single handedly alerted millions of Americans to the threat to marriage. His support has been a key element in getting the federal amendment to a vote in the House this year and, almost, in the Senate. He will continue to be central to getting it passed.

It also is becoming apparent that a combination of factors related to defending marriage is at work reshaping the American political landscape. Some exit polls suggest that for 22% of voters, “moral values” was the most important factor affecting how they voted. It ranked higher than any other issue including fighting terrorism and the economy. Probably no other “values” issue has focused these voters more than the threat to marriage.

President Bush’s leadership is a major reason for this phenomenon, but others perhaps deserve more credit. They include the four activist Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justices who imposed legal same-sex “marriage” on the Commonwealth and who made the threat to marriage very real to millions of Americans. They also include those rogue elected officials in San Francisco and Portland who performed thousands of illegal same-sex “marriages” and the aggressive, in-your-face-tactics of the homosexual activists and their allies.

Together, they have succeeded in rousing the majority of Americans to push back--hard. We cannot now foresee all the future political implications, of course, but they are likely to be significant. Some political analysts, for example, are suggesting that in several key states like Ohio this energized block of citizens voting their values was a decisive factor in the President’s re-election.

Also of great significance in defending marriage is President Bush’s political “coattails” in helping the GOP pick up 4 additional Senate seats. This gives the Republicans closer to the “working majority” they need in a Senate where, increasingly, it takes 60 votes to break filibusters. The minority in the current Senate has effectively used the filibuster to block votes on a range of important issues including filling judicial vacancies and passing the federal marriage amendment.

With the recent announcement of Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s serious illness, the importance of filling the likely upcoming vacancies on the United States Supreme Court has come into even sharper focus. President Bush may be able nominate as many as four justices during his second term, potentially putting a conservative stamp on the court for a generation to come.

But even with the increased margin of GOP control of the Senate, getting good nominees confirmed will still be a monumental battle. It is a battle that those of us committed to defending marriage and the family must aggressively join and one we must win. (To get a sense of what we are up against, read the press statement of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force we link to below.)

This election has been history-making in the traditional sense that choosing one candidate for president over the other inevitably changes the course of the Republic. But we must also understand that these victories now give us the opportunity to write that history of the Republic as well.

What we do in the next two or three years can go far towards protecting marriage and the family for future generations. If we care about them we must remember that our successes—or failures—will be their history.

Let us all get to work to make that history one they will be proud to honor.

Sincerely,

Richard G. Wilkins
Chairman

P.S. Please pass this on to others who would be willing to help defend marriage and the family.

The Numbers for the Eleven State Clean Sweep

Here are the results state-by-state for passage of the marriage amendments on ballots around the country on November 2nd:

Arkansas	75% - 25%
Georgia	77% - 23%
Kentucky	75% - 25%
Michigan	59% - 41%
Mississippi	86% - 14%
Montana	66% - 34%
North Dakota	73% - 27%
Ohio	62%- 38%
Oregon	56% - 44%
Oklahoma	76% - 24%
Utah	66% - 34%

News Coverage and Commentary on the State Amendment Victories

Some general press coverage and commentary

What the homosexual activists are saying about their defeat

It is very educational for marriage defenders to read what the homosexual activists are saying about their stunning defeat in all eleven states. The “National Gay and Lesbian Task Force” statement and analysis is representative. This group poured a huge amount of money into the efforts to defeat these amendments around the country ($900,000 in Oregon alone). Among other thngs they are vowing to “dig in and fight” and claim that their organizations are stronger as a result of their defeats. Click here.

Your Financial Support Helped Make Victory Possible—But We Still Have Far to Go!

The generous financial support of people like you made the amendment victories in these eleven “marriage battleground states” possible. But the fight to defend marriage and the family is far from won and we still need your support.

Our priority now is to refocus our effort to pass the federal marriage amendment. Homosexual activists make no secret of the fact that they are relying on the federal courts to impose same-sex marriage on all the states. They know that a Supreme Court decision imposing same sex marriage will trump all these state constitutional amendments and all the others we can get passed in the next few years.

It should be sobering to all of us that even though fighting these state marriage amendments was only a “holding action” while they could push litigation through the courts they spent millions of dollars nationwide to try to stop them. They have already spent millions in trying to stop the federal amendment and they clearly will spend many millions more.

(If you have any doubts about what the homosexual activists are planning and how determined they are, simply look over the press statement from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force we link to above.)

We need to get the word out to those Americans who now understand the threat to marriage and get them to actively support the federal amendment. We also have to support the marriage constitutional amendment efforts starting soon in the next round of states. To do this effectively, we need your help.

Will you please consider making as generous a contribution as you can to defend marriage and the family in this country?

You can easily and securely make a contribution online or print out a form to mail in a contribution.

Your contribution will be made to United Families International (UFI), a 501 (c )(3) organization, so it is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. United Families International is active in defending marriage and the family at the U.N. and in countries around the world. Defend Marriage is a project of UFI and focuses on defending marriage in the U.S.

If you would like to designate your contribution to go entirely to the Defend Marriage Project you can easily do so by making a contribution that ends with 4 cents, i.e. $25.04, $173.04, $1,000,000.04, and so on. That will automatically flag it to be applied entirely to Defend Marriage.

Thank you in advance for your generous support!

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Phone: (480) 632-5450 • FAX: (480) 892-4417