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Defend Marriage Newsletter
July 7, 2005

In this issue:


A Critical Week for Marriage Here and Abroad!

Dear Defender of Marriage;

Sheldon Kinsel, Director, Defend Marriage Project Three events last week, two abroad and one here in the U.S., will likely have significant impacts on marriage in the United States for years to come.

Key votes in Canada’s House of Commons and Spain’s Congress of Deputies last week made it virtually certain that these two countries will become only the third and fourth in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

United Families International provided extensive support in both Spain and Canada for the valiant fights to defend marriage in both countries. In Canada, we worked closely with our Canadian affiliate, United Families Canada, and in Spain we worked through the World Families Alliance, which UFI coordinates.

United Families Canada did a truly remarkable job of mobilizing grassroots support. They gathered more than 60,000 names on a national petition to defend marriage, generated more than 45,000 e-mails to the Prime Minister calling for a national marriage referendum, attracted more than 145,000 votes to an online referendum and were responsible for thousands and thousands of e-mails, letters and calls to members of Parliament. Considering that Canada has less than 1/8th the population of the United Sates, this was a truly remarkable and significant effort.

In the weeks leading up to the vote in Spain, UFI President and WFA representative Sharon Slater, provided support as an expert at press conferences, advised on strategy and spoke to the massive pro-marriage rally of over a million people in Madrid. WFA provided technical support for an online referendum that attracted more than 33,000 votes and spearheaded the effort that generated thousands of e-mails from nearly 70 countries around the world to Spanish President Zapatero urging him to drop his government’s push to legalize same-sex marriage.

While homosexual activists are claiming that these victories are only the most recent evidence of what they claim is an inexorable march towards legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States and around the world, the reality is much different. In Canda and Spain, particularly in Canada, future changes in government that are considered likely could lead to repeal of these actions. Around the world, and certainly in the United States, the events in these two countries have merely stiffened the resolve of pro-marriage groups and individuals to defend this critical social institution in their own countries.

Clearly, however, the announcement last week by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that she was resigning from the high court will be of far greater potential significance to the future of marriage in the United States. O’Connor has been the “swing” vote in a number of 5-4 decisions on a range of social issues. Sometimes she has sided with the conservatives but often has been on the other side of these decisions.

Unlike Chief Justice Rehnquist, a consistent conservative voice whose resignation for health reasons is also widely expected, replacing O’Connor with a more consistently conservative justice would clearly nudge the court in a more predictably conservative direction. While this prospect is heartening to conservatives, it strikes terror among liberals who generally have been the prime beneficiaries of the rulings of increasingly bold and irresponsible activist federal judges in recent years.

All of this sets the stage for what is expected to be by far the most heated and expensive fight over a Supreme Court nominee in the history of the Republic. Both sides are amassing huge war chests. The spending in this nomination fight is expected to be a minimum of $50 million and could easily go as high as $100 million or more depending on who is nominated. Liberals have already begun to attack the “profile” of the likely Bush nominee, even before he makes his selection, while conservatives are vigorously defending it.

It is almost impossible to overestimate how critical winning these nomination fights will be to marriage, family, life and other conservative issues for decades to come. Almost certainly, the most enduring Bush legacy will be those he names to the Supreme Court.

This is why we are urgently asking for your help in getting good nominees confirmed by the Senate. For some of you in key states, the greatest help you will be able to provide will probably be contacting one or both of your senators and getting others to do the same. We will keep you advised on this as the fight develops.

However, everyone can help by providing financial support. While we expected that we would have at least one nomination fight during 2005 and budgeted accordingly, neither we nor others foresaw that the liberals would collect tens of millions of dollars to defeat anyone Bush nominates or that they would employ the tactics they are. We urgently need additional support if we are going to be as effective as we could be and must be in this effort. As we have shown time and again, we can generate substantial grassroots pressure, but doing so costs money for mailings, phone calls, Internet outreach and the other techniques we employ. The more resources we have, the more effective we can be.

The fight in the Senate on the nomination is expected very soon after Congress returns from its Labor Day recess. This gives us about two months to prepare for it. Because this is so important, we are directing all contributions made to UFI’s Defend Marriage Project during the next 60 days entirely to this fight. Your can make a tax deductible contribution securely on line or by mail if you prefer. More specific instructions are provided below.

As was the case with the presidential election last year, we stand once again at a historic crossroads. If we are successful, we will have ensured a brighter future for our children and future generations of Americans by this one victory alone.

Please support us in any way you can in this critical fight!


Sincerely,

Sheldon Kinsel
Director, Defend Marriage Project

P.S. You can help defend marriage even more by forwarding this newsletter on to others who would be interested.

We Urgently Need Your Financial Support to Help Get President Bush’s Supreme Court Nominee Confirmed

Our success in defending marriage and the family depends entirely on the generous financial support of people like you. We are faced with a critical and historic opportunity to support at least one Bush Supreme Court nominee this year and possibly two. The other side understands what is at stake and they are raising tens of millions of dollars to block the President’s pick.

These fights will be won at the grassroots, by constituents who let key senators know in no uncertain terms that they want them to vote for the President’s nominees. We can be very effective in helping mobilize this grassroots support as well as in direct lobbying but we need your help. The techniques we employ, including Internet outreach, phoning, mail and others all cost money and the more support we have the more effective we will be.

Please consider making a contribution to the Defend Marriage Project of at least $25 if you can, but any amount you can afford will be helpful. If enough people contribute at least a little, together it makes a huge difference in what we will be able to do.

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. Defend Marriage is a project of UFI.

To specifically designate your contribution to the Defend Marriage Project, simply make 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.

For at least the next 60 days, all contributions to the Defend Marriage Project will be specifically earmarked to support the fight to confirm President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee.

Thank you in advance for your generous support!

News Items of Interest

International

  • Canada Votes to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

    On June 28th the Canadian House of Commons voted 158 to 133 to legalize same-sex marriage in that country. Legal same-sex marriages have been performed for several years in a number of Canadian provinces as a result of court orders but this legislation would legalize such marriages in all the provinces nationwide. The bill, C-38, is now being considered by the Senate but its passage is virtually assured. Articles here and here.

  • Spain Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

    By a vote of 187-147 on June 30th the Spanish Parliament approved legislation that will legalize same-sex marriage in that country. The legislation removes all distinctions in Spanish law between heterosexual couples and same-sex couples including allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. Articles here and here.

Domestic

  • California Judge Upholds Federal DOMA

    Southern California Federal District Judge Gary Taylor upheld the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in a June 17 ruling. The ruling came in a case brought by two homosexual men and was the third time a court has upheld the federal DOMA. In upholding the federal law, Judge Taylor noted that it legitimately promotes "the stability and legitimacy of what may reasonably be viewed as the optimal union for procreating and rearing children by both biological parents.'' The plaintiffs have vowed to appeal. Article here.

  • Massachusetts Attorney General Defending 1913 Law

    Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly is defending the state’s 1913 law that prohibits out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their wedding would not be legal in their state of residence. The law has been used to greatly reduce the number of same-sex marriages performed in the state and has been challenged as unconstitutional. Article here.

  • California Supreme Court Declines to Review Domestic Partnership Ruling

    The California Supreme Court on June 29th declined to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld the states “domestic partner” law. The law gives registered domestic partners virtually all the rights the state offers to marriage couples. It has been challenged by a coalition of pro-family groups who will now turn their attention to a state constitutional government that could effectively repeal the domestic partnership law. Article here.

  • United Church of Christ Endorses Same-Sex Marriage

    The 1.3 million member United Church of Christ on July 4th adopted a resolution endorsing same-sex marriage. The liberal denomination is the largest Christian church to formally endorse the practice. The resolution is not binding on local congregations and pastors of the denomination would not be required to perform same-sex marriages. Article here.

  • California Attorney General Asks Supreme Court to Expedite Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

    California Attorney General William Lockyear has asked the California Supreme Court to expedite consideration of the lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the state law that prohibits same-sex marriage. If the court agrees, a decision could be rendered within the next year rather than taking two years or more if the regular appellate process was followed. Press release here.

  • California Same-Sex Marriage Proponents Using Parliamentary Tactic to Resurrect AB-19

    Same-sex marriage proponents in the California legislature are employing a parliamentary maneuver to resurrect AB 19, the bill the Assembly defeated by four votes several weeks ago. The maneuver involves striking the language in a bill the Assembly has already sent to the Senate and inserting the language of AB 19. The bill to do this, AB 849 that was originally a marine research bill, is scheduled for hearings in the Senate on July 12. If approved by the committee, it would have to pass the Senate and come back to the House for another vote before it could go to Governor Schwarzenegger. Article here.

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