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CWA: Marriage Needs Protection on All Fronts 2/24/2004 It’s not enough to protect only the word ‘marriage.' Washington, D.C. – Concerned Women for America’s President Sandy Rios responded to President Bush’s announcement on marriage today, saying, “Concerned Women for America is grateful to President Bush for speaking out in favor of the integrity of marriage. But we regret that we cannot support the defective remedy he has chosen.”
“A constitutional amendment defining marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman is a necessary safeguard against the current assault on the institution of marriage,” said Michael Schwartz, vice president for government relations for CWA. “But if that amendment authorizes state legislatures to confer the entire legal substance of marriage (without the name of marriage) upon persons who are not married, then it takes away with one hand what it gives with the other.”
"What makes anybody think that activist courts or renegade mayors will respect a state's choice to not provide marriage benefits to civil unions?” said Jan LaRue, CWA's chief counsel. “Any state law, including a state constitutional amendment, can be trumped by a federal equal protection ruling by an activist judge.”
A new study of Scandinavian nations, where the equivalent of gay marriage has been in place for several years has, “driven home the message that marriage itself is outdated, and that virtually any family form, including out-of-wedlock parenting, is acceptable,” according to the Hoover Institution’s Stanley Kurtz.
“It’s not enough to protect only the word ‘marriage,’” said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute. “California has shown us what happens when marital benefits are conferred upon unmarried relationships, such as, ‘domestic partnerships.’ Business people, regardless of their beliefs, are now being forced to promote homosexuality or lose state contracts; schoolchildren are being taught that homosexuality is normal and healthy; the Boy Scouts are being driven from the public square. “
CWA will work with state legislatures to build legal safeguards for marriage and also work on Capitol Hill to strengthen the language of a federal constitutional amendment.
For Information Contact: Natalie Bell (202) 488-7000 media.cwfa.org |