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Same-Sex Marriage Amendment
Facing a midterm election with sinking poll numbers, conservatives are hoping to reach out to their base by renewing their push for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Senate Resolution 13 declares that marriage "shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman" and prohibits state governments from allowing any other form of marriage. The proposed amendment cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in a party-line vote on May 18th and heads to the floor for a full Senate vote on June 5th. This amendment attempts to define marriage according to religious terms rather than civil/secular terms and therefore violates the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution's First and Fourteenth Amendments. It diminishes the rights of millions of Americans and disgraces our Constitution by using it to legalize discrimination.
Dear [ Decision Maker ] , I strongly encourage you to vote against the proposed amendment defining marriage as a union between only a man and woman (S.J. Res. 13). Instead, I ask that you call for the legalization of same-sex marriages in a way that would respect marriage as a social institution at the same time promoting the values of equal rights and religious freedom. This could be done simply by expanding the definition of civil marriage to include same-sex couples. Gay families are a reality in America and deserve the same protections in matters of property, child custody, and security as traditional families. The proposed amendment institutionalizes sectarian religious views on marriage that are incompatible with it's civil purpose. It diminishes the rights of millions of Americans and disgraces our Constitution by using it to legalize discrimination. I urge you to vote against this amendment and to support equal rights for all couples who wish to love each other and raise families.
Sincerely, |
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| Background Information |
"The new proposed constitutional amendment wending its way through Congress is an affront to equal protection, and violates the First Amendment by defining marriage by religious, rather than secular terms," says David Koepsell. “Equal protection under the Constitution demands that any two people who wish to enter into a marriage should be able to do so, even while the free exercise clause allows any church not to be forced to conduct such a ceremony.”
“Sacramental matrimony is marriage in the eyes of a church; civil marriage is a governmental function,” says
“Civil marriage, gay or straight, is a perfectly reasonable solution,” says DJ Grothe, the Council’s National Field Director. “The suggestion of individual states creating ‘civil unions’ is a poor substitute for a nationally-recognized civil marriage, which comes with well over a thousand federal benefits and responsibilities that state-sanctioned civil unions don’t afford.”
The proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage would be an explicit establishment of a civil institution by religious terms, and would be an unprecedented narrowing of rights which ought to be afforded to all citizens.
The Council for Secular Humanism is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization promoting rational inquiry, secular values and human development through the advancement of secular humanism. The Council, publisher of the bimonthly journal Free Inquiry, has a Web site at www.secularhumanism.org.
