Marriage Protection Amendment

MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDMENT -- (House of Representatives - September 30, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 801, proceedings will now resume on the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 106) proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage.

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank our ranking member for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I oppose this constitutional amendment because it would write discrimination against gays and lesbians into our Nation's Constitution. This amendment not only prevents gays and lesbians from marrying; it also restricts civil unions. Over the last couple of years, polls in New Jersey have shown the majority of the State's residents strongly support civil unions.

This amendment is nothing more than red meat for the conservative right 1 month before an election. They know it is not going anywhere. The Senate could not even get a simple majority to bring an amendment to the floor. Here in the House, the majority leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), recently admitted that he did not believe the amendment would pass. Yet here we are today spending 2 ½ hours debating an amendment that we all know is going nowhere.

There was a lot of talk on the Republican side today about the Founding Fathers. Well, since our Nation's infancy, family law has been left to the States. It was our Founding Fathers' belief that issues of intense local concern should be debated and resolved at the local level. We should keep it that way and defeat this amendment.

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