Perry v. Schwarzenegger: California becomes the latest battleground for Gay Marriage Rights | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Homosexuals will make the argument (again, as they did in Perry) that same-sex marriages serve a state interest because they enable gays and lesbians to live in committed relationships. Well, there are perfectly able to do that today. There is nothing stopping them other than their unwillingness to do so because it officially is not termed a “marriage.” They will also argue (again, as they did in Perry) that the link between marriage and procreation is not as strong as it used to be. While that might be true, it is irrelevant since the overwhelming number of married couples plan on conceiving and having a family. Adam Kolasinsky wrote in 2004: “Until recently, the primary purpose of marriage, in every society around the world, has been procreation. In the 20th century, Western societies have downplayed the procreative aspect of marriage, much to our detriment. As a result, the happiness of the parties to the marriage, rather than the good of the children or the social order, has become its primary end, with disastrous consequences. When married persons care more about themselves than their responsibilities to their children and society, they become more willing to abandon these responsibilities, leading to broken homes, a plummeting birthrate, and countless other social pathologies that have become rampant over the last 40 years. Homosexual marriage is not the cause for any of these pathologies, but it will exacerbate them, as the granting of marital benefits to a category of sexual relationships that are necessarily sterile can only widen the separation between marriage and procreation.”

    Is homosexuality a “choice” or is it embedded in our genetics? I would like to pull a “Judge Walker” right now and state that the argument for a genetic basis is flimsy and without much merit. Homosexuality is much too common for it to be considered a genetic aberration (and by “aberrant” I mean “deviating from that which is normal or desirable”). There is no rhyme or reason for who is gay or who is “turning gay.” That flies in the face of genetics which shows that aberrations just don’t spontaneously arise so frequently and indiscriminately. Homosexuals say they “know they aren’t meant to be straight” and they claim that homosexuality is just as “normal” as heterosexuality and all one has to do is look at the animal kingdom. Here are my thoughts on that:

    (1). Those animals who try to come together sexually will not reproduce, so their individual traits of homosexuality will be removed from the immediate gene pool. If a farmer who lived in England was able to genetically-modified his male cow (bull) so that it would be completely resistant to Mad Cow disease, he would indeed have an animal with superior survivability abilities. He would count on that bull to propagate that desirable genetic trait through sexual reproduction. If, however, that bull had no interest in female cows but rather enjoyed being a Brokeback Cow, then its “superior” genetics have reached a dead end. Also consider if this bull was the last male of its species. What if the future of his kind depended on his coupling with female cows and what if he just wasn’t interested in them? Brokeback Cow represents, as I like to say, an evolutionary cul-de-sac. Nature might have homosexual members but there are severe consequences.

    (2). The fact that homosexuality is a “common” aberration does not stop it from being wrong. For example, a rise in the number of child molestations in a city does not stop it from being an aberrant crime. No judicial body would accept child molestation as acceptable conduct because it has become “common” and more widespread in society. I would also use the example of lying. But that wouldn’t be a good one. Politicians have been doing it so commonly and so insidiously that they don’t consider anything wrong with it anymore.

    (3). The fact that homosexuality is a “common” aberration and becoming more popular (as opposed to the animal kingdom where it is still very uncommon) suggests that it is associated more with “recruitment” and experimentation rather than genetics.

    (4). We should not necessarily look to the animal kingdom for what is “normal” and “aberrant.” First of all, God created us specifically in his image, (as man and woman, to have dominion over all the beasts and animals. Genesis 1:28. Second of all, animals engage in “common” things like infanticide, cannibalism, and abandonment. Just because animals do something doesn’t make it right or wrong.

    Homosexuality is certainly more behavioral than genetic. If it were genetic, there wouldn’t be all the “experimentation” and “fluidity” (going from one choice to another) that is associated with it. Also, the entire genetic code has been sequenced. Not only have scientists not found the “gay gene,” but they still haven’t shown a plausible genetic explanation for the preference. Maybe there is a higher level of female hormone in the gay man? Maybe there are certain differences in brain matter? There are all kinds of theories and suggestions. Two things are for sure, (1) Homosexuality is condemned in the Bible, and (2) if there indeed is gene for homosexuality, the theory which guides how species develop and adapt – Darwin’s Theory – will explain how it needs to be weeded out of the gene pool. First, it is not news to anyone that the Bible, even in its earliest books, refers to homosexuality as an “abomination.” (Genesis 19: 1-13). Leviticus 18:22 says: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a women; that is detestable." Leviticus 20:13 says: "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable." The word for "abomination" is used five times in Leviticus 18 and is a strong term of disapproval, implying that something is abhorrent to God. The same Creator that gave us our fundamental rights also set limits on them.

    In Genesis 1:28 we learn that God created Adam and Eve “in his own image” - as male and female. Not as man and man. Not as woman and woman. He created them to be capable of procreation, and then he blessed them and commanded them to “Be fruitful and multiply.” Again, the God who taught us to love one another and to love thyself, and who gave us “right reason” through our inherent goodness and our ability to use our mind to reason which is the very basis of Judeo-Christian laws and our national laws as well, also teaches us that man is meant to lie down with a woman.

    As we all are aware, the most important function of every species is to preserve its existence. In other words, it needs to be able to procreate and preserve itself. Under Darwin's process of natural selection, all living things are continually adapting, usually genetically, to their natural environment in order to have a better chance of surviving. The weakest link (the most poorly adapted) will die off while the strongest, most robust, and versatile will survive and go on to mate and propagate the species. With each such “selection event,” the genetic make-up of the species becomes improved and adapted for survivability. In other words, those members of the species which are best able to survive and reproduce under certain circumstances will be the ones to pass on their genes and traits most successfully. The evolution of species is therefore a series of events dominated by strong genes and demanding environments (“selection pressure”). Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest” and “survival of the species” therefore explains how genes which weaken the species will be quickly rooted out. And the gene which prevents the species from procreating would be exactly the gene that is weeded out first. Again, homosexuality is an evolutionary cul-de-sac.

    Marriage is the basic, most important and fundamental institution of our ordered civil society. Its primary purpose is for procreation and proper child-rearing, for stability and for the type of education and modeling that enables young men and women to become independent from their parents to become decent, respective, moral, productive, well-adjusted members of society. States and government should be trying to protect its integrity and not destroy and undermine it. Everything right in society stems from a solid and productive marriage and family union. Marriages between a man and a woman are on a completely different scale than unions involving a man and a man or a woman and a woman. There is nothing, and I mean, nothing, that can compare to a relationship that involves creating another human being, realizing that it is your own flesh and blood and endowed with the traits and characteristics that were you at an early age. Creating and bringing a child into the world reminds each couple that there is a God and that just as there is no words that can describe or quantify the love you have for your child, there is no end to the love that God has for his people. Children are a gift from God, blessed upon a couple that has entered into a covenant of marriage and accepting the responsibilities that God has set out. There is nothing that can compare to the marital bond as it grows with the growing fetus and then with the growing child. There is something special and natural when two people can come together, in love, and create another human being, representing a perfect union of both Mom and Dad. Gays and lesbians can’t truly know all the things that make up a true family unit… They can’t know the sorrow and frustration of miscarriages and the difficulty of conception. They can’t know the dark side of pregnancy.. post-partum depression, permanent body changes, scarring. These are things that marriages and families are built on. They are built on a union that recognizes that they usually want and plan to build something more important and more precious than just a coupling. Marriages are meant for this kind of commitment and for this traditional union. To say that marriages can be allowed for just anyone simply serves to dilute that sacred distinction that marriage holds in the community and in the eyes of God.

    Plaintiffs suggest that domestic partnerships cannot substitute for marriage because domestic partnerships do not have the same social and historical meaning as marriage and that much of the value of marriage comes from its social meaning. The “social and historical meaning” associated with marriage comes from the traditional adherence and respect given to this institution, as well as to the religious implications associated with it. Marriages are looked upon as “sacred.” What I am trying to say is that the status associated with this relationship of “marriage” has been EARNED. It has been earned by historical observance of the traditional roles that marriage embraces. These roles have been ordained as being those necessary for a moral and ordered civil society. Gays and lesbians are seeking to benefit from the status of marriage without having to observe the rules that have supported this “sacred union” in the first place. It would be like gays and lesbians demanding to have the right to join a church, even though each church might wish to respect certain virtues and rules for its congregation and membership. The worth of a title is only as valuable as the collection of people that can claim that title. The significance of religion on the marital union must not be diminished. It must not be diluted. To do so will be to dilute the sacredness for all.

    The Heritage Foundation wrote a good piece on marriage back in 2004 and I think one section in particular is worth sharing here:

    “For thousands of years, on the basis of experience, tradition, and legal precedent, every society and every major religious faith have upheld marriage as a unique relationship by which a man and a woman are joined together for the primary purpose of forming and maintaining a family. This overwhelming consensus results from the fact that the union of man and woman is apparent and manifest in the most basic and evident truths of human nature.

    Marriage is the formal recognition of this relationship by society and its laws. While individual marriages are recognized by government, the institution of marriage pre-exists and is antecedent to the institution of government, which in turn presupposes and depends on the institution of marriage. Society's interest in uniquely elevating the status of marriage among human relationships is that marriage is the necessary foundation of the family, and thus necessary for societal existence and well-being.

    The basic building block of society is the family, which is the primary institution through which children are raised, nurtured, and educated, and develop into adults. Marriage is the cornerstone of the family: It produces children, provides them with mothers and fathers, and is the framework through which relationships among mothers, fathers, and children are established and maintained. Only in the context of family built on the foundation of marriage can the sometimes competing needs and interests of men, women, and children be harmonized.

    Because of its characteristic relationship with the family, marriage is uniquely beneficial to society. Based on existing studies comparing two-parent and single-parent households, social science overwhelmingly demonstrates that children do far better when they are raised by two married parents in a stable family relationship and that children raised in other household structures are subject to significantly increased risk of harm.

    Evidence further suggests that one reason children do better in a married household is not just the stability of having two parents, but the fact that a male and a female parent each bring distinctive strengths, perspectives, and characteristics to the family unit that benefit both children and the parents. Although we have little information concerning children raised in households with same-sex parents, what we do know is that marriage between a man and a woman provides unique social, economic, and health benefits for children, adults, and society in general.

    Moreover, because of the shared obligations and generational relationships that accrue with marriage, the institution brings significant stability, continuity, and meaning to human relationships and plays an important role in transferring basic cultural knowledge and civilization to future generations.

    In the end, despite all the changes that law and cultural trends have wrought concerning marriage--despite the laws concerning prenuptial agreements, divorce, tax, and property that treat marriage as a contract--it has never before been, nor is it now completely, the case that marriage is a mere contract. Society has changed the form, but never the substance, of marriage; and it is the substance of marriage--its very nature, definition, and purpose--that creates and justifies its unique position as a social institution and continues to give lawmakers strong and reasonable arguments for upholding traditional marriage and protecting it in law.”

    Right now, states are allowing marriage for homosexuals. What will stop the polygamist from demanding his equal marital rights? What will stop Uncle Joe from marrying his lovely niece Sarah? The same arguments that plaintiffs used in Perry to tear down the sanctity of traditional marriage equally apply to these other candidates. If marriage is no longer “traditional” enough (their argument was that marriage has transformed so effectively that traditional gender and marital roles no longer exist) to prevent homosexuals from tying the knot, then it isn’t “traditional” enough to prevent polygamists and members of the in-breeding society to tie the knot as well. Homosexuals have started this country on a slippery slope that will end with complete moral decay and destruction of all traditional notions for a moral society. Marriage needs to be reserved for those couples, a man and a woman, who follow the traditional plan of coming together to eventually start a family. It is a blessed union designed to produce fruit, to perpetuate family trees. It is the most honorable and noble of life’s deeds.

    Allowing gay marriage will erode the sanctity that attaches to the sacred union. It will make a mockery of the sacred covenant of marriage, which was intended to foster procreation and tight family units. It risks enshrining into law the notion that sexual love is the sole criterion for marriage. If the state must recognize a marriage between two men simply because they love one another, then it must also do so for polygamists and the like. How can the state prevent this scenario? By declaring that the purpose of marriage is for procreation and protecting traditional marriage. That’s how. If sexual love becomes the perceived purpose of marriage, it will lead to marital chaos. Legalizing homosexual marriage would allow a tiny minority of people to change long-held moral codes and the social commitments that sustain it.

    I think an important issue that the court needs to hear regarding social change, especially on the magnitude that we are talking about (redefining traditional gender and social roles), is how such change will impact young children. Openly-gay Judge Walker was not able to appreciate the difference between a man and a woman raising a child or a same-sex couple. He was not able to appreciate the inherent greater value that comes from a heterosexual union providing proper role models. He discredited the arguments and evidence presented by proponents, including the information presented by notable social psychologist David Blankenhorn, which showed that children fare better in stable traditional homes with a mother and a father, and not with two Daddies or two Mommies. In fact, Walker wrote: “Children do not need to be raised by a male parent and a female parent to be well-adjusted, and having both a male and a female parent does not increase the likelihood that a child will be well-adjusted.” Aside from the psychological aspect of being raised in a homosexual home where traditional gender and role models are blurred, there is the simple inability of children and adolescents to process change and consequence properly because of their limited brain development.

    Research conducted in 2004 at Cornell University with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), using MRI analysis on the adolescent brain, supports what some parents have long suspected - that the teenager’s brain is different than the adult brain. The research showed that the teen brain is not a finished product, but rather a work in progress. Up until fairly recently, scientists believed that the brain was fully mature (that is, learning and processing pathways were laid down) by age 10-12. However, this recent study at Cornell shows that the greatest changes to the parts of the brain that are responsible for functions such as self-control, judgment, emotions, and organization occur between puberty and adulthood. This, they believe, may help to explain certain teenage behavior that adults can find frustrating, such as poor decision-making, recklessness, and emotional outbursts.

    During the teen years, it turns out, the brain undergoes a wave of development that scientists were not aware of before. The brain undergoes a wave of overproduction of gray matter in the mid to later teen years (just as it did in the first 18 months of life) and then uses this opportunity to form new or re-enforce old learning pathways (“use it or lose it” kind of thing). It is explained that this pruning process makes the brain more efficient. Add onto this finding the fact that not all parts of the adolescent brain mature at the same time and then interact with one another as they do upon full maturation (in the 20s). Because not all parts of the adolescent brain mature at the same time, the adolescent may be at a disadvantage in certain situations, especially in areas of emotion and processing feelings and appreciating consequences. For example, the limbic areas of the brain, which are thought to regulate emotions and are associated with an adolescent's lowered sensitivity to risk and propensity for novelty and thrill seeking, mature earlier than the frontal lobes, which are thought to be responsible for self-regulation, judgment, reasoning, problem-solving, and impulse control. This difference in maturational timing across the brain can result in impulsive decisions or actions, a disregard for consequences, and emotional reactions that can put teenagers at serious risk in ways that may surprise even the adolescents themselves. There is, however, tremendous individual variability among adolescents, the pathways they follow, and the outcomes they experience. For example, the emotional and physical energy that is characteristic of adolescence can be channeled into sports, academics, music, art, and various causes as well as in negative directions that produce adverse outcomes, including alcohol use. Experiences that promote self-reliance, independence, and self-regulation usually involve some risk.

    The point is that adolescents, let alone elementary school children, lack the mental processing ability to appreciate deviation from social norms or to process the consequences of conduct that might harm or confuse them in their more mature years. Confusion is an adolescent’s worse enemy. Any child psychologist will stress that young children and adolescents need good role models in their lives. They will imprint and adopt what is around them. Don’t let Judge Walker convince you otherwise. These facts and findings add new dimensions to the issues surrounding and facing young people. These should serve to concern and challenge our policy makers to do better on their behalf, and not to add to the conflicting and confusing messages they already receive in the public schools and in our morally decaying society.

    My final concern is over the educational changes that will need to take place to elevate homosexuality to a protected and respected lifestyle choice. We all know that the public school system will want to “educate” and “indoctrinate” everyone on this subject. They will want to take class time away from real learning to devote to additional lessons on “diversity.” Who knows, maybe we will even have a “Gay Pride” Month and students can draw rainbows all over the place. I absolutely don’t want the school system to teach my children about homosexuality. I don’t trust the school system to teach this topic appropriately. Why is that? Because that same school system is not allowed to acknowledge religion and quite possibly, not even allowed to teach morality. No public institution should even approach the subject of homosexuality until each child has a strong religious foundation, a strong sense of family and community, and a strong foundation and education in science so they can evaluate that subject in the context of religion, morality, and science. And that rarely happens until later in the high school curriculum, if not even later than that.

    I would condemn any school system which tries to teach homosexuality as a healthy alternative to a heterosexual lifestyle because that would put the lesson at odds with my religious principles. If the school attempts to preempt my children from learning what the Bible teaches them, then I would have a problem under the First Amendment and my rights to exercise my religion and to raise my children as I deem appropriate. We have a serious disconnect in this country between people who want to live their lives in an unstructured “anything goes” way and those who see the benefit from structure and discipline. I think we’ve already seen what history has to say about the former. Many times, as a matter of fact. I just think it is heinous and irresponsible for the supposed highest thinkers in our country, our judges, to give support and credence to their cause. They are taking us from the back roads right to the highway to hell. Personally, I’m just fed up with society and with judicial activism which continually want to root out tradition in favor of progressivism. How much harder do they want to make it on parents to work, contribute to society, hold their families together and raise their children properly? The overwhelming majority of the country would love to be able to raise their children in a society that respects decent wholesome values. We don’t appreciate the constant struggles to navigate our children through the decay they face every day in an “anything goes” environment. As I’ve discussed earlier, their brains aren’t even equipped to process the decay properly. How much psychological confusion do children need to bear?

    As a mother of four, I am already horrified at the attempts by schools to teach homosexuality as a perfectly legitimate lifestyle choice and a perfectly acceptable choice of sexual affiliation. I have invested many years teaching my kids the proper way to live and the proper values to guide their actions, their decisions, and their lives. And the schools come along and have carte blanche to use whatever teaching programs it wants to undermine my teaching and my parenting efforts. I want my children to grow up, get married, and enjoy the supreme satisfaction that comes from conceiving a child, carrying it until birth, and raising it. I want them to enjoy the miracle of life, the opportunity to reproduce part of themselves, and the opportunity to conceive a child with someone they love. It will ultimately be their choice, of course, but I don’t want my children being confused into a decision, into experimentation, into a potential life style that robs them of this opportunity as well as one that puts them at risk for some horrible diseases. Again, this goes back to my point that children need a solid and firm foundation in values (that THEY and THEIR PARENTS embrace, and NOT what the school or what society embraces) before they should be exposed to (or rather, inundated with) homosexuality. This is America, the country that was founded on morality and on a deep respect for the laws of our Creator. As such, laws are supposed to be designed to protect the good and decent members of society. John Adams said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” If we’ve officially abandoned our Constitution, can someone please let me know.
There absolutely should be a different scheme for heterosexuals and homosexuals as to how to classify their relationships because their coupling is simply and most fundamentally different. There should be a distinction of relationship terms (“marriage” versus “civil union” and domestic partnerships”) because the nature of the relationships themselves are different. To conclude any differently is illogical and ingenuous. It is counterintuitive.

    Proposition 8 is about the majority group making its voice known on a very important issue. That is not to say that the majority ever had the right to oppress a minority group, but that is not what has happened. There has been no oppression and in fact, there has been tolerance. In most states there has been recognition of homosexual unions and recognition of their rights. Statutory pathways have been created to give them status and equal rights. And some states have given them more. There is no legal requirement to give homosexuals parity with heterosexuals when it comes to relationships because there is simply no such biological parity. Biology, a politically void science, speaks clearly on this matter. Homosexuals aren’t being discriminated. That would imply that they are “entitled” to a marriage. They are not entitled to a marriage when it is based on a fundamental biological principle that they offend.

    Proposition 8 was a desperate measure by a desperate people. They took a stand to protect the traditional definition of marriage, for their society’s sake. I would propose another desperate measure.. Let’s rally for a Constitutional amendment to fix our broken judicial system. No more legislating from the bench. Let us require that judges, when they are alone in their chambers, hear voices from men like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Justice John Marshall… and not voices from Karl Marx, Saul Alinsky, and Liberace.

    I want to end by making one word of caution. If gays and lesbians get the right to “marry,” we may see our government attempt to throw out all religious significance and religious interpretation with regards to the union. Why do I say this? Already, many gay activists (who see society moving in the direction of equal rights to marriage) are complaining that the religious custom, imposes a religious interpretation and condemnation on their relationships. They argue that marriages recognized by the State should not be forced to meet religious standards because that burdens their civil rights. They argue that religion has no place in government anyway.

    I'm not writing this in any way to discriminate against homosexuals as persons with dignity and with rights, but Spock from Star Trek has taught me a very powerful lesson -- "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.... or the one."


REFERENCES and NOTES:

    Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco, 33 Cal.4th 1055 (2004)

    In re Marriage Cases, 43 Cal.4th 757 [76 Cal.Rptr.3d 683, 183 P.3d 384] (2008) http://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292 (evidence cited in Perry v. Schwarzenegger)

    PX00011 California Voter Information Guide, California General Election, Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at PM 003365

    Lawrence v Texas, 539 US 558, 571 and 582 (2003) [The Court struck down sodomy laws. Scalia, J, dissenting: “If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is ‘no legitimate state interest’ for purposes of proscribing that conduct * * * what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples exercising ‘the liberty protected by the Constitution’? Surely not the encouragement of procreation, since the sterile and the elderly are allowed to marry.” “Tradition alone cannot support legislation.”];

    Everson v Board of Education of Ewing Township, 330 US 1, 15 (1947)

    Washington v Glucksberg, 521 US 702, 719-720 (1997). [When legislation burdens the exercise of a right that is deemed to be fundamental, the government must show that the intrusion withstands strict scrutiny. (ie, the toughest degree of scrutiny)]

    Lewis v. Harris, 188 N.J. 415; 908 A.2d 196 (N.J. 2006) [concluded that the right to marriage is NOT a fundamental right as afforded by the NJ state constitution (which mirrors the rights in the US Constitution) ]

    Turner v Safely, 482 US 78, 95 (1987) [(“The decision to marry is a fundamental right” and marriage is an “expression of emotional support and public commitment.”]

    Zablocki v Redhail, 434 US 374, 384 (1978) [“The right to marry is of fundamental importance for all individuals”]

    Cleveland Board of Education v LaFleur, 414 US 632, 639-40 (1974) [“This Court has long recognized that freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment”]

    Loving v Virginia, 388 US 1, 12 (1967) [“The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”]

    Griswold v Connecticut, 381 US 479, 486 (1965) [“Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred. It is an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Yet it is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in our prior decisions”]

    West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette, 319 US 624, 638 (1943)

    Romer v. Evans, 517 US 620, 633 and 635 (1996) [“Laws of the kind now before us raise the inevitable inference that the disadvantage imposed is born of animosity toward the class of persons affected.”].

    Williams v Illinois, 399 US 235, 239 (1970) (Equal Protection case involving criminal law. State tried to incarcerate defendant longer because as an indigent, he couldn’t pay attorney fees so the state tried to make him work off the costs, in jail. Held: State can’t extend incarceration based on the status of the defendant (indigency)]

    US Dept. of Agriculture v. Moreno, 413 US 528 at 534 (1973)

    Palmore v Sidoti, 466 US 429, 433 (1984) [“The Constitution cannot control private biases but neither can it tolerate them.”]

    Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa v Casey, 505 US 833, 850, (1992) [“Moral disapproval, without any other asserted state interest,” has never been a rational basis for legislation]

    Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, 798 N.E.2d 940 (Mass. 2003) [The Massachusetts Supreme Court held that the state may not "deny the protections, benefits and obligations conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry." Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, writing for the majority, wrote that the state's constitution "affirms the dignity and equality of all individuals. It forbids the creation of second-class citizens," the state had no "constitutionally adequate reason for denying marriage to same-sex couples," and "The right to marry is not a privilege conferred by the State, but a fundamental right that is protected against unwarranted State interference." On the legal aspect, instead of creating a new fundamental right to marry, or more accurately the right to choose to marry, the Court held that the State does not have a rational basis to deny same-sex couples marriage on the ground of due process and equal protection.]

    http://old.nationalreview.com/document/bush200402250934.asp (Transcript of President Bush’s Speech on February 25, 2004, endorsing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman)

    http://www.actforyouth.net/documents/may02factsheetadolbraindev.pdf (Cornell University Study on Adolescent Brain Development)

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=sgdrinkt&part=A91013 (Publications and Reports of the Surgeon General)

    http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/05/A-Defining-Moment-Marriage-the-Courts-and-the-Constitution (Matthew Spalding, PhD. “A Defining Moment: Marriage, the Courts, & the Constitution,” The Heritage Foundation, May 17, 2004)

    http://www.reflector.com/opinion/cal-thomas-muslim-fanatics-are-right-about-whats-wrong-america-44108 (Cal Thomas, “Muslim Fanatics are Right About What's Wrong With America,” Daily Reflector, Aug. 11, 2010)

    http://tech.mit.edu/V124/N5/kolasinski.5c.html (Adam Kolasinsky, ”The Secular Case Against Gay Marriage,” MIT University, Feb. 17, 2004)

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/williams-w/w-williams45.html (Walter Williams, “Is Profiling Racist?”, (or “Not Every Choice Based on Race Represents Racism”) posted on LewRockwell.com and in the Daily Reflector, Aug. 5, 2010)

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/04/MNQS1EOR3D.DTL#ixzz0vt3wahAG

    Note - The statewide vote on Proposition 8 was 52% YES and 47% NO.


    February 25, 2004, 9:34 a.m. [ http://old.nationalreview.com/document/bush200402250934.asp ]

    Defending Marriage

     ( This is the text of a speech delivered by President George W. Bush on Feb. 24, 2004, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, in defense of a Constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman).

    Good morning. Eight years ago, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for purposes of federal law as the legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.

    The Act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 342 to 67, and the Senate by a vote of 85 to 14. Those congressional votes and the passage of similar defensive marriage laws in 38 states express an overwhelming consensus in our country for protecting the institution of marriage.

    In recent months, however, some activist judges and local officials have made an aggressive attempt to redefine marriage. In Massachusetts, four judges on the highest court have indicated they will order the issuance of marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender in May of this year. In San Francisco, city officials have issued thousands of marriage licenses to people of the same gender, contrary to the California family code. That code, which clearly defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, was approved overwhelmingly by the voters of California. A county in New Mexico has also issued marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender. And unless action is taken, we can expect more arbitrary court decisions, more litigation, more defiance of the law by local officials, all of which adds to uncertainty.

    After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization. Their actions have created confusion on an issue that requires clarity.

    On a matter of such importance, the voice of the people must be heard. Activist courts have left the people with one recourse. If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America. Decisive and democratic action is needed, because attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country.

    The Constitution says that full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts and records and judicial proceedings of every other state. Those who want to change the meaning of marriage will claim that this provision requires all states and cities to recognize same-sex marriages performed anywhere in America. Congress attempted to address this problem in the Defense of Marriage Act, by declaring that no state must accept another state's definition of marriage. My administration will vigorously defend this act of Congress.

    Yet there is no assurance that the Defense of Marriage Act will not, itself, be struck down by activist courts. In that event, every state would be forced to recognize any relationship that judges in Boston or officials in San Francisco choose to call a marriage. Furthermore, even if the Defense of Marriage Act is upheld, the law does not protect marriage within any state or city.

    For all these reasons, the Defense of Marriage requires a constitutional amendment. An amendment to the Constitution is never to be undertaken lightly. The amendment process has addressed many serious matters of national concern. And the preservation of marriage rises to this level of national importance. The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution, honoring — honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society.

    Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all. Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife. The amendment should fully protect marriage, while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage.

    America is a free society, which limits the role of government in the lives of our citizens. This commitment of freedom, however, does not require the redefinition of one of our most basic social institutions. Our government should respect every person, and protect the institution of marriage. There is no contradiction between these responsibilities. We should also conduct this difficult debate in a manner worthy of our country, without bitterness or anger.

    In all that lies ahead, let us match strong convictions with kindness and goodwill and decency.

    Thank you very much.