In This Issue:
Dear Friend of the Family,
This is an off-election year in the United States, but there is plenty of activity afoot in the attempts to protect marriage. In the U.S., a handful of states are attempting to shepherd state constitutional marriage amendments toward the 2008 general ballot. In other states, legal skirmishes are threatening marriage as the union of one man and one woman. United Families International’s legal team is involved in legal battles to protect marriage in other states.
United Families International supports traditional marriage because it takes the union of the sexes to form a family that creates, nurtures, mentors and sustains the next generation. Marriage should not be rendered meaningless to comfort those who are unable or unwilling to enter into it.
Following is a synopsis of what is happening regionally in the efforts to defend marriage.
- Florida: Backers of Florida4Marriage are within striking distance of qualifying a state constitutional marriage amendment for the 2008 general election ballot. A minimum of 611,009 signatures are needed, but additional signatures will be collected to cover for those names that are disqualified by the state. The deadline for signatures is September 1.
- California: The attorney general’s office recently approved the California Marriage Amendment for circulation as a citizen petition. The Voters Right to Protect Marriage Initiative committee supporters has begun the work of gathering 694,354 valid signatures to qualify the amendment for the 2008 ballot.
- Rhode Island: UFI has filed an amicus brief with the Rhode Island Supreme Court contending that the Family Court may not recognize, for the purpose of entertaining the Chambers-Ormiston divorce petitions, the Massachusetts marriage of two Rhode Island women. In 2004, Rhode Island residents Margaret Chambers and Cassandra Ormiston went to Massachusetts for the purpose of marrying each other. Massachusetts is a state that allows same-sex marriage, but Rhode Island does not recognize such. Last year, these two women filed for divorce in Providence, Rhode Island. Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah then asked the Rhode Island Supreme Court to determine if he has the authority to hear the case.
- Vermont: The objectivity of a 10-member commission appointed to study whether Vermonters are ready for a state law allowing same-sex marriage is clearly lacking. All 10 members support same-sex “marriage.” The volunteer commission will hold six public hearings to gauge public sentiment and talk to experts before making a recommendation to the legislature by the end of April, 2008. Commission chairman and former State Rep. Tom Little has made it clear that his approach is aimed at asking if there are “any good reasons grounded in law or morality or ethics that point to why we shouldn't do this?" The legislature will take up the commission’s recommendations in 2009.
- Ohio: The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in late July that the state’s domestic violence laws do not conflict with the state's protection of marriage. In a 6-1 decision, justices rejected an argument that the domestic violence law was unenforceable in cases involving unmarried couples because it refers to them as living together “as a spouse.” In his written opinion, Chief Justice Thomas Moyer wrote that lawmakers included many groups under the domestic violence law, and that describing people's living arrangements isn't the same as creating a law approximating marriage. The marriage amendment prohibits the government from creating any such approximation.
- Oklahoma: Two lesbian couples challenged the federal Defense of Marriage Act, in a federal court in 2004. Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin had a church-recognized commitment ceremony in Florida in 2002, and then tried to have a civil marriage here. Susan Barton and Gay Phillips had a Vermont civil union performed in August 2001, went to Vancouver, British Columbia, to get married in May 2005 and then tried to get the U.S. Government and the State of Oklahoma to recognize their civil union and their marriage. Cait O'Darling is challenging the constitutionality of the state’s 2004 marriage amendment and seeking to validate the same-sex “marriage” partnership she entered into in another country by having a divorce recognized in Oklahoma.
- Arizona: Marriage backers may push for a 2008 ballot measure.
Carol Soelberg
President
P.S. You can help defend marriage even more by forwarding this newsletter on to others. Thank you.
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