Statement in Support of Gay Marriage

With the issue of gay marriage now part of the national dialogue, many Americans are struggling with their desire to maintain long-standing traditions while ensuring tolerance and fairness for their fellow citizens.

I support the right of committed gay and lesbian couples to marry. Only full marriage rights will guarantee same-sex couples equal protection under the law and provide them access to the same rights and benefits enjoyed by all other families.

This position is consistent with America's tradition of passing laws to safeguard civil liberties and ensure fairness, dating back to struggles against discriminatory efforts to limit citizenship, education, voting rights, workplace protection, and interracial marriage. Marriage will grant gay and lesbian couples equal access to the thousands of marriage-specific benefits and protections afforded heterosexual couples under federal law.

Civil unions are not enough to ensure this equality because they offer only marginal protections that may not even cross state lines. Moreover, same-sex couples in a civil union do not receive any of the more than 1,000 federal benefits and protections that married spouses receive, including the following: hospital visitation rights; social security benefits upon a spouse's death; spousal health care coverage; estate taxes on property inherited from a deceased partner; retirement savings; family leave entitlement; and survivor benefits.

The issue of gay marriage has left many Americans torn between their cherished religious beliefs - which may define marriage in a man-woman context - and long-held democratic values of fairness and justice for all. Marriage has a significant religious meaning for many people, and holds a specific role in their relationship with God.

But marriage is also a legal contract, and it is this dimension of the institution that must be separated from any religious definition. The separation of church and state that the framers laid out in the Constitution applies to the legal dimension of marriage, and allows us to expand its civil scope to include same-sex couples without in any way altering the religious view of marriage held by people of faith.

Marriage strengthens families, and creates greater stability in our society. Children are more secure if they are raised in homes with two loving parents who have a legal relationship between them and can assume the responsibility of good parenting. In the U.S. today, more than one million children are growing up in homes with same-sex parents. Legalizing same-sex marriage will strengthen the institution of marriage by allowing it to meet the needs of the diverse family structures in America today.

No constitutionally adequate or humane reason exists for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples. Without the right to marry, these Americans are excluded from the full range of human experience and are denied the full protection of the law. Recognizing the right of an individual to marry a person of the same sex will not affect opposite-sex marriage, and will benefit society.

I believe in extending legal and human rights to people in long-term, committed relationships, and support the right of same-sex couples to marry and enjoy the full protection of the law.