Defend Marriage: Newsletter

In This Issue:

Defending Marriage Must Take on Different Tone

Dear Defender of Marriage,

The last election brought a change in tone to Congress. This change forces supporters of pro-family initiatives such as the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) to focus not only on who will and who willnot vote to support the FMA, but to monitor legislation that could put pro-family support systems at risk. Putting pro-family support systems at risk stifles the efforts of United Families International and other pro-family groups to help you in the defense of marriage and traditional families. Friends, with this change in the tone of Congress we are needed more than ever as a watchdog over political forces to undermine the family unit.

A good example of a pro-family support system put at risk by the new Congress is the recent consideration of Senate Bill 1, the lobby reform bill. Most of the provisions of that bill are necessary and appropriate. But Section 220 would have silenced grassroots-based advocacy groups such as UFI by impeding you from making your views known to your elected officials on pending legislation.

Along with other major pro-family groups, UFI mobilized a grassroots effort to remove this section from the bill. Tens of thousands of citizens quickly responded (thank you if you were one of them!) and the Senate dropped this section before passing the bill. However, we could see it reappear in the House.

On another front, there is an effort brewing by liberal members of Congress to muffle conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. Legislation to re-impose a Federal Communications Commission regulation called the “Fairness Doctrine” may sound reasonable, but on closer analysis this would clearly produce negative consequences to the work of promoting traditional families.

The “Fairness Doctrine” would require all talk show hosts to provide equal time to both sides of an issue whenever they aired controversial statements. For instance, if Hannity were to discuss the reason to support traditional marriage for 30 minutes of airtime, he would have to also discuss the reason for supporting homosexual marriage for 30 minutes. Violation of the regulation could carry heavy fines by government bureaucrats. As a result, most stations will likely not allow the airing of anything controversial. News reporting would be exempt from the FCC rule.

Conservative talk radio is where discussions of issues important to families occur, and occur often. These discussions provide an essential counterbalance to the liberal bias in the traditional media’s “news” reporting on family and social issues. It is difficult to imagine where we would be as a country without the contribution talk radio has made to our political debates over the past 20 years by providing more balance and perspective. We will need to keep a close eye on this issue as the session in Congress proceeds.

Indeed, as you see, the tone of Congress has changed. To combat the change and to be successful in the battle to support the traditional family, we must change our political strategy and work harder to defend marriage and all of its support systems. Please consider making a generous financial contribution to help in our efforts.

Thanks for all you do to help defend marriage.

Sincerely,

Carol Soelberg
President

P.S. You can help defend marriage even more by forwarding this newsletter on to others. Thank you.

CEDAW Petition Update

More than 2,000 people have signed our petition opposing CEDAW ratification.

If you have not yet signed UFI’s petition opposing U.S. ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), you can still lend your support. The U.S. Senate is under pressure by our anti-family opponents to sign CEDAW, which is a direct threat to the family and to sovereignty. Our petition states the following:

"We, the undersigned are opposed to the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) treaty. We believe the United States of America is a sovereign nation and should not be overseen by an appointed United Nations committee that will impose its own views and rules on our country."

Defend Marriage Update

In conjunction with the prestigious Marriage Law Foundation, UFI plans to file an amicus brief in defense of marriage in a significant court case in Iowa. This will be the eighth amicus brief we have filed in key cases and we have been on the prevailing side in each case.

World Watch

Gregory Koukl: Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ — Challenges & Responses
Same-sex “marriage” is radically revisionist. It severs family from its roots, eviscerates marriage of any normative content, and robs children of a mother and a father. This must not happen.

Proposed Washington Initiative Would Nullify Childless Marriages
A group of same-sex “marriage” supporters aims to qualify a ballot initiative that would limit marriage in Washington to couples willing and able to have children. The measure would also dissolve the union of those who remain childless three years after marrying. Are they serious?
Michigan Court Rules against Benefits For Homosexual Couples
Michigan's marriage amendment prohibits government agencies and schools from providing health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of employees if the benefits are similar to those offered married couples, the state Court of Appeals ruled in the first major legal interpretation of the proposal overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2004.

New York Times Admits Erring in Report on Marriage
The failure of the New York Times to fully explain the methodology of a survey on marriage was one of several journalistic lapses cited by the paper’s ombudsman in the handling of the story. The Times’ analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey stated that married women represent a minority of female adults. The Times included girls as young as 15 who are not married, skewing the results. Such reporting is problematic because in some states girls that young may not legally marry.

We Urgently Need Your Financial Support to Help Us Defend Marriage

We are only able to do the things we are presently doing to defend marriage and the family in the U.S. and around the world because of the generous financial support of people like you. Please consider making the most generous contribution you can to support UFI.

To specifically designate your contribution to the Defend Marriage Project, simply make a contribution that ends with 4 cents, i.e. $50.04 and so on.

United Families International is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Contributions by U.S. citizens are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. You can easily and securely make a contribution online or print out a form to mail in a contribution.

We thank you for your continued generous support!

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United Families International PO Box 2630 Gilbert, AZ 85299-2630
Phone: (480) 632-5450 • FAX: (480) 892-4417