[CS-FSLUG] Federal Marriage Amendment Struck Down for Today

[Ralph De Witt]

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On Wednesday 14 July 2004 09:31 pm, Aaron Patrick Lehmann wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 14, 2004 at 07:41:34PM -0400, Fred Miller wrote:
> > Even though the U.S. Senate has voted down the Federal Marriage
> > Amendment, this is not a defeat, but rather a victory--a great
> > victory!
>
> This seems to be a victory to me too, but not because the people involved
> are going to continue trying to get a Marriage Amendment passed, but simply
> because this one was struck down.  The government has no business dictating
> the terms for a sacremant.  It is seeming to me that things would be better
> if the government supported civil unions, for both heterosexuals and
> homosexuals, and marriage was strictly an ecclesiatical affair.  If this
> amendment goes through, there doesn't seem to be anything stopping them
> from down the line creating an amendment defining marriage as between one
> Buddhist man and one Buddhist woman.  Or one white woman and one white man.
>  Or one man with an IQ of 110 or higher and one woman of an IQ of 110 or
> higher.  Ultimately, this seems to me a situation of the government seeking
> to grant itself a power that it ought not have.
>
> Aaron Lehmann
Aaron:
I agree. This reminds me of the poem. Who is to say that once this is voted in 
to law that they will not continue to change or restricte marrigae. To me 
marriage is a religious sacrament that only Church's should define.

First They Came for the Jews


 First they came for the Jews
 and I did not speak out
 because I was not a Jew.
 Then they came for the Communists
 and I did not speak out
 because I was not a Communist.
 Then they came for the trade unionists
 and I did not speak out
 because I was not a trade unionist.
 Then they came for me
 and there was no one left
 to speak out for me.
 

Pastor Martin Niemöller 

Those in favor of FMA state this is necessary to protect society and marriage 
from distruction. Yet a recent study in Europe proves other wise. Also no 
were in Europe were Church's forced to marry same sex couples this is a pure 
civil matter. During the failed effort to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment 
(FMA) in the Senate this week, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., claimed, 
"In the Netherlands, which adopted de facto same-sex marriage in 1997, the 
proportion of children born outside the marriage has tripled." 

But according to economist Lee Badgett of the University of Massachusetts, 
that claim is untrue. "It hasn't even tripled," she said. "It rose a lot 
before the Netherlands passed the law. But people couldn't register [for 
partner benefits] until 1998." 

According to Badgett's research, "It is true that the Dutch nonmarital birth 
rate has been rising steadily since the 1980s, and sometime in the early 
1990s the nonmarital birth rate started increasing at a somewhat faster rate. 
But that acceleration began well before the Netherlands implemented 
registered partnerships in 1998 and gave same-sex couples the right to marry 
in 2001."

Badgett's study, titled, "Will Providing Marriage Rights to Same-Sex Couples 
Undermine Heterosexual Marriage?" was published by the Council on 
Contemporary Families and the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic 
Studies.

Among Badgett's findings:

Heterosexual marriage rates in the Scandanavian country of Denmark actually 
increased after adoption of same-sex marriage. They are now the highest they 
have been since the early 1970s.
 
The majority of families with children in Scandinavia and the Netherlands are 
still headed by married parents. In Norway, 77 percent of couples with 
children are married and 75 percent of Dutch families with children include 
married couples. By comparison, 72 percent of U.S. families with children are 
headed by married couples.

Acceptance of same-sex partners has not weakened commitments to children. In 
fact, the average Scandinavian child spends more than 80 percent of his or 
her life living with both parents -- more time than the average American 
child.
 
"In the end, the Scandinavian and Dutch experience suggests that there is 
little reason to worry that heterosexual people will flee marriage if gay and 
lesbian couples get the same rights," Badgett concluded.

Also a recent study by the OMB shows that the US Government would see net 
increase of $1 Billion in taxes if same sex civil marriage benefits were to 
be xtended.

IMHO this FMA flap was about polictics and trying to get the Government to 
meddle in a area which is solely the province of religion. It was wrong to 
try and write discrimination into the constitution, it was wrong of the 
President to try and divide the people. They say granting same-sex benifits 
would lead to society impolding, I do not think it will. I feel in the U.S. 
everyone should have equal writes, even to civil marriage.
- -- 
	Yours,
	Ralph.
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