Issue Position: Protect Marriage: One Man + One Woman

Issue Position

The definition of Marriage has been, since the conception of the United States, the union of one man and one woman. While there are different religions which respect different traditions regarding marriage, this has been the standard for what our GOVERNMENT recognizes as a marriage. When a Muslim enters the United States, even if he has multiple wives, the U.S. government recognizes only one. When Mormons settled in the Utah Territory, despite the fact that their religion allowed for plural marriages, the federal government would not allow them to join the Union unless their Constitution outlawed Polygamy, which they did. The LDS Church also made polygamous relationships in violation of their faith. Similarly, the government does not recognize marriages that otherwise defy the tradition of what creates a natural family--a man and woman, which are necessary to create a child. Even close familiy relations are forbidden from marrying in most states. Therefore two men, two women, brothers and sisters, parents and chilidren, or any other combination of genders has not been recognized by the government as marriage. Recently, the very wealthy and powerful homosexual community have sought to normalize their sexual behaviors by having politicians pass laws recognizing same-sex "marriages." Coupled with this, they have promoted the acceptance of cross-dressing, sex changes, transgenderism, and a variety of other gender-oriented efforts to deny a person's natural biology. Pushing this upon our youth is wrong, as it is inconsistent with nature and is contrary to the religious beliefs of many parents who cannot afford to remove their children from the public school system. No person alive on earth exists because two men or two women came together to conceive them--every person who has ever lived (including those conceived en vitro) has been the result of the union of the genetic material of a male and female human. Marriage simply recognizes this, and has traditionally given the blessing of a sacrament to the occasion. Government has also seen fit to encourage such unions by granting benefits and special tax status to married couples. It is a corrupt effort at social engineering to mis-use government to re-define marriage. Foreseeing such efforts, the State of Maryland revised its Family Law in 1973 to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. And in 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to protect marriage at the federal level and to relieve states from having to recognize the marriage laws of other states. Today, State Constitutions and other laws which uphold the definition of marriage are under attack by homosexual activists. I will stand firmly with those who adhere to the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, for if we re-define it for homosexuals, we must also re-define it to benefit polygamists, incestuous relationships, and countless other sexual minorities whose relationships are not recognized by the government. Doing so completely destroys the sacredness of marriage, and treats it as nothing more than a registry of which people are living together. Preserving the traditional definition of marriage protects the religious rights of those who believe that marriage is sacred; it protects the rights of children to be raised by their own biological mother and father; and it protects the rights of States and Individuals to speak freely against behavior they disapprove of, and to structure their government in a way that reflects their values. That, in the end, is the definition of Liberty, and that is why Marriage must be protected.

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