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CWA Calls for Real Protection of Marriage 3/22/2004 We urge leaders on Capitol Hill to write an amendment that clearly defines marriage. Washington, D.C. - Concerned Women for America (CWA) called on congressional leaders to strongly protect marriage in the Constitution, and said that proposed changes to the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) would more explicitly permit states to create civil unions.
“CWA continues to stand for protecting marriage without sanctioning bad behavior,” said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, an affiliate of CWA. “We urge leaders on Capitol Hill to write an amendment that clearly defines marriage. Even just the first sentence of the FMA is better standing alone. We could support that language because it would ‘do no harm.’”
“The FMA, as amended, still allows for the erosion of marriage by allowing states to create civil unions. Whether you call other relationships ‘Quasi Marital Schemes’ or ‘Civil Unions,’ when they're recognized in law no differently from marriage, all you've protected is the name.
“At least this clarifies whether the amendment is worded specifically to allow state legislatures to create counterfeit ‘marriage.’ And it does. The new language omits the words, ‘nor state or federal law,’ thereby limiting its application.”
The amendment now reads:
“Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”
“It's wrong for government to sanction and benefit unmarried relationships, ‘gay’ or straight, whether it's done by a court or a legislature,” said Jan LaRue, CWA's chief counsel. “The change in the second sentence will raise more objections from the homosexual lobby because it permits courts to confer the ‘legal incidents of marriage’ on ‘the union of a man and a woman.’ That could be an unmarried couple. The former language barred courts from benefiting ‘unmarried couples or groups.’”
“When a state creates civil unions and domestic partnerships, it gives government approval to behavior that is immoral, unhealthy and destructive to individuals, families and communities,” said Knight. “It sends a message to children that marriage itself no longer matters.”
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Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 |
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