November Elections May Determine Fate of Marriage
by AFA Journal
September 27, 2004
(AgapePress) - Will traditional marriage survive for another year? Two years? Five? The answer may very well be determined by the outcome of the federal and state elections taking place November 2.
On the state level, as many as 12 referendums on traditional marriage may be taking place, in which voters will be allowed to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. In Missouri, one state which has allowed the people to actually vote on the issue this year, voters in August barred same-sex marriage by 71 percent to 29 percent. That vote was followed in September by another vote in which 78 percent of voters voiced their approval of amending the Louisiana state constitution to protect traditional marriage.
Several other states -- Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah -- will be considering similar pro-marriage amendments in upcoming November ballot initiatives. But homosexual activists are trying to take the issue out of voters' hands in at least two other states, mounting furious court challenges in states like Arkansas and Ohio.
Elsewhere activists are challenging state laws that already limit marriage to a man and a woman. In Connecticut in late August, lawyers with the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) have filed suit in state court on behalf of seven homosexual couples determined to legalize same-sex marriage. GLAD attorneys were responsible for crafting the successful legal challenges in Vermont and Massachusetts -- in which legalized civil unions and same-sex marriage, respectively, were the result.
Similar suits, filed either by other pro-homosexual legal groups or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), are already under way in California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington state.
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Dr. Don Wildmon |
"Homosexuals and those who sympathize with their agenda are trying to take this issue out of the hands of the voters, and place marriage in the hands of liberal judges," says Rev. Don Wildmon, founder and chairman of the American Family Association, a longtime proponent of traditional family values and a major supporter of federal legislation that would remove jurisdiction over the issue of same-sex marriage from the federal judiciary.Liberal Democrats and a handful of Republicans in the Senate kept that measure, the Federal Marriage Amendment, from even coming up for a vote this past summer. In the House of Representatives, a vote on the FMA (H.J. Resolution 56) is scheduled for September 30 . While some view state amendments as sufficient to protect marriage, Wildmon disagrees. He sees the FMA as mandatory.
"States can help themselves by passing their own amendments defending traditional marriage," Wildmon says. "But in the end, only the Federal Marriage Amendment will settle this issue once and for all."
Wildmon urges all Christians and other pro-family conservatives to get to the polls in November and vote for candidates who are actively supporting traditional marriage. "This very well could be our last chance to preserve the institution of marriage as God ordained it," he says.The Federal Marriage Amendment would need a two-thirds majority (290 votes) in the House to move on to the Senate. Regardless of the outcome, the issue will likely be a campaign topic leading up November's balloting.
The major portion of this article appeared in the October 2004 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
