Senate Dems Reaffirm Stand Against Marriage Amendment

by Jody Brown and Allie Martin
June 4, 2004

(AgapePress) - According to a national homosexual-rights advocacy group, it's a done deal that a Federal Marriage Amendment banning same-sex "marriage" will never make it out of the Senate -- and they say they have the Democratic backing to prove it.

According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), at least three Democratic senators have pledged to block any legislation proposing to amend the U.S. Constitution to prohibit recognition of same-sex unions. In a mid-May press release, NGLTF said Senators Barbara Boxer of California, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan met with leaders of the "gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-gender community," during which the lawmakers reaffirmed the "solidity of support" against a Federal Marriage Amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Matt Foreman, executive director of NGLTF, states in the press release that the leadership displayed by the Democratic senators contrasts sharply to President Bush's "calculated campaign" to use the our lives and our relationships as a wedge issue in the elections."

Foreman vows that the "furious campaign" of "the religious and political right" in support of what he describes as "anti-gay initiatives" around the country will be met with increased resources and a shift in focus by homosexual advocacy groups to thwart those efforts. And Democratic support in the Senate toward that same goal, he says, is appreciated.

"We are gratified that our allies in the Democratic minority have committed to killing any attempt to enshrine anti-gay discrimination into our nation's most sacred document," Foreman states.

The Death Knell?
Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families fears that the deal struck in the halls of Congress between those Democratic leaders and homosexual-advocacy groups could be the "death knell" for traditional marriage in America -- unless non-committal Republican senators hear from their conservative constituency. And he warns that if activist judges such as those in Massachusetts continue to have their way, homosexual marriage will be legal throughout the nation, not just in the Bay State.

"If we can't continue to say that marriage is one man and one woman, it's going to affect what's taught in our schools, what pastors can say in the pulpit -- indeed, the whole structure of our society will be changed by that defeat," he says. "So this is clearly the most important social and moral issue facing the country right now."

Earlier this week, Bauer appeared at a press conference in Washington, DC, with several black pastors who said the issue of same-sex marriage cannot be compared to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

"I can't express enough just how impressed I was by the passion and commitment of [those] pastors," he says, pointing out that they are risking a great deal in their communities by breaking ranks with the Democratic Party and joining with the "white, conservative, evangelical community." In contrast, he says, Capitol Hill supporters of traditional marriage are not doing enough.

For example, Bauer says it "just isn't acceptable" that President Bush has issued only two statements in five months in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment. "It makes no sense -- politically or morally -- for the White House to be so passive on this fundamental issue," he says.

And things in Congress are not much better, he laments. He notes that Republican leaders such as Senators Bill Frist of Tennessee, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Sam Brownback of Kansas are working hard on the issue in hopes of a Senate vote this fall. "But too many Republican senators are still non-committal on the amendment," he says.

Bauer says it is vital for concerned Christians to speak up on the issue. "If we lose the battle over the definition of marriage, not only will we soon have polygamy and group marriages and the repeal of laws on incest and so forth, but this really will represent the last battle in America's culture war," he says.