Pro-family groups hope to reign in gay wedding bandwagon

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Pro-family lobby groups nationwide—who have long carried the mantle for the merits of marriage—are now finding themselves in a bitter skirmish to stop it as tradition gives way to alternative lifestyle.

Fueled by the recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court decision ordering same-sex marriages there, and the more recent campaign by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to shun California law by allowing thousands of homosexual men and women to marry their same-sex partners, coupled with threats of similar moves by other cities, pro-family groups have focused their attention on a proposed federal constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.

“It is quite clear that the tyranny of four judges in Massachusetts last November has left every state and county in this nation vulnerable to having same-sex ‘marriages’ forced upon them,” Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, said in a news release. “We now have judges acting like legislators in Massachusetts, and a mayor acting like a judge in San Francisco. They need to go back and read their job descriptions.”

They may have a new weapon. President George W. Bush jumped into the fray with both feet Feb. 24 when he signaled his support for the federal amendment.

“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,” Bush said in his statement. “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 president’s statement was widely heralded by conservatives, who have been pushing behind the scenes for a presidential endorsement for the amendment.

“The president was right on target when he said activist courts have left the American people no other recourse,” Perkins said. “The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling was the starting gun for the marathon to protect the historical and traditional definition of marriage. And that action led others in San Francisco and New Mexico to believe they could simply ignore the law and rewrite the definition of marriage. The president was right to say enough is enough.”

Perkins and others are lamenting the domino effect the San Francisco case was having across the country as officials in one New Mexico county began issuing same-sex licenses Feb. 20. The practice was later stopped by New Mexico state officials.

“The federal government must not allow these rogue actions to endanger the marriage laws of every other state in the union,” Perkins said the week before Bush announced his support of the same-sex ban.

A day before New Mexico began issuing the licenses, Chicago Mayor Richard Daly indicated he would support such action if his city’s clerk began to issue the licenses.

“Marriage has been undermined by divorce,” he said. “So don’t tell me about marriage. People should look at their own life.”

Even so, the Chicago city clerk said the law makes the issuance of such licenses illegal and that he intends to abide by the law.

Perkins said he anticipates that homosexual activists across the country will begin following San Francisco’s lead and begin filing suits challenging the 38 states that have laws prohibiting same-sex marriages.

Seeking federal protection
The key to stopping the movement, pro-family advocates say, is the implementation of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The advocates, who turned up the heat in February, maintain that the president’s affirmation of marriage during his State of the Union and his public comments that he’s troubled by what’s happening in San Francisco did not go far enough.

“Marriage between one man and one woman is so fundamentally important to our social and cultural structure, that the people ought to once and for all have their voice heard in this important matter,” said Mat Staver, chief counsel for the Florida-based Liberty Counsel. “We should not allow a patchwork system to develop in America regarding marriage. We all are affected by one state seeking to change its marriage laws.”

Staver and his staff have been working in California to stop the action in San Francisco.

Not all conservative groups were pleased with the Bush statement. Officials with Concerned Women for America, called the presidential plan defective because Bush called on states’ rights to define everything short of marriage.

“The amendment should fully protect marriage, while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage,” the president said.

Michael Schwartz, vice president for government relations for Concerned Women, said such a policy is merely a game of semantics.

“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,” he said. “But if that amendment authorizes states 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.”

Promoting marriage on multiple fronts
In the meantime, communities across the country continue to promote the benefits of the traditional marriage in other arenas. In Colorado, numerous pro-family groups held a “Stand up for Marriage” rally Feb. 20 supporting marriage. Sponsored by State Rep. Kevin Lundberg, a Republican from Berthoud, the rally was scheduled to feature FRC’s Perkins, Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family and Jim Chapman of the Rocky Mountain Family Council. At the rally Lundberg and other local representatives issued a resolution supporting the federal marriage amendment.

A week earlier, churches across the country were urged to designate Feb. 15 as Covenant Marriage Sunday. The national campaign, sponsored by the Covenant Marriage Movement, was established to acknowledge “the importance of building strong marriages and protecting marriage from redefinition.” The movement—made up of more than 60 ministries and organizations, as well as 27,000 couples—wants Christians worldwide to corporately affirm marriage as a covenant relationship, according to Charisma magazine

In January, organizations in Massachusetts and across the nation, announced the formation of the Coalition for Marriage, a group that advocates the importance of “one man and one woman marriage. The group includes Alliance Defense Fund; Black Ministerial Alliance; Center for Marriage Law; Family Research Council; Focus on the Family; Women for America and the Traditional Values Coalition.

Last month, nearly a dozen Washington-area churches participated in Northwest Marriage Week, when local churches dedicated one of their services to the topic of marriage.

Sponsored by Families Northwest, the event included the “Our Marriage Matters” pledge campaign, a regional effort to identify 135,000 couples proclaiming that their marriage matters. Also that week, marriage experts Drs. Les and Leslie Parrot hosted a marriage seminar to help couples.

Published by Keener Communications Group, March 2004

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