Pro-Family Leaders Unite Against AFL-CIO's Pro-Same-Sex-Marriage Resolution

by Jenni Parker
June 3, 2005

(AgapePress) - A broad coalition of religious and family values organizations went toe-to-toe with Big Labor this week, demanding in a letter to American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Unions (AFL-CIO) president John Sweeney that union officials rescind a recent resolution supporting homosexual "marriage."

The AFL-CIO Executive Committee's March 3 resolution in support of same-sex marriage has gone largely unreported outside of a few "gay and lesbian" publications. The labor organization officials unanimously adopted the measure, which opposes federal and state constitutional amendments to define marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman.

In the resolution, the AFL-CIO reiterates its "longstanding support for the full inclusion and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace and society." The Executive Committee also avers that a federal Marriage Protection Amendment and its state counterparts "threaten the rights of working people by creating an environment across the nation that is hostile to the rights of domestic partners, regardless of their sexual orientation." However, a coalition of pro-family leaders contends it is the AFL-CIO that is threatening the rights of its workers who support traditional marriage and families.

Dr. Don Wildmon

American Family Association chairman Dr. Don Wildmon says the family values advocates who signed the letter to the national labor organization are united in their purpose, which is "to protect one-man, one-woman marriage and defend the precious liberties of faithful Americans who belong to an AFL-CIO-affiliated union." The group is also determined to speak up for the majority of the labor union's members -- a majority the coalition believes would vehemently oppose the Executive Committee's resolution.

Addressing Sweeney, the pro-family leaders write: "We firmly believe that the overwhelming majority of dues-paying union members who finance the national AFL-CIO and its organizational, political and lobbying activities strongly oppose so-called homosexual 'marriage' as well as the broader political agenda of homosexual and 'transgender' activists."

The letter also outlines the coalition's concern that, under the recent resolution, union dues and fees collected as a condition of employment could be used to help pay for political and lobbying activities designed to advance homosexual and transgender activists agendas -- causes that many of the union's pro-family workers do not support and would not choose to fund.

On behalf of those millions of workers who pay dues to the AFL-CIO but who also feel traditional marriage deserves and demands constitutional protection, the coalition members urge the union's Executive Committee to "respect and honor the views of [its] own rank-and-file membership." They ask that the committee members do this by voting to rescind the March 3 resolution supporting homosexual marriage when they come together to vote during the AFL-CIO's upcoming July 25-28 annual convention in Chicago.

In Good Company: Supporters of Traditional Marriage Unite
In the letter, AFA's Dr. Don Wildmon is joined by leaders of more than three dozen national and state organizations, including the heads of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Catholic Vote, the Coalition of African American Pastors, and a number of Christian television and radio networks. Several prominent religious and conservative leaders are represented, including Beverly LaHaye of the Beverly LaHaye Institute, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, Janet Folger of Faith2Action, and Linda Chavez, who was President Bush's original nominee for Secretary of Labor.

The letter's other signatories (see the full list) [PDF] included three Christian legal foundations, seven AFA state affiliates, and half a dozen affiliates of Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family, including former AFL-CIO union negotiator Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values in Cincinnati. Burress's successful Ohio marriage amendment was widely credited with tipping Ohio into President Bush's re-election column in the November 2004 presidential election.

The pro-family leaders advised union head Sweeney in their letter that, when it comes to the issue of protecting marriage, they -- not the AFL-CIO officials -- speak for the bulk of the union federation's 13 million members. The group cited polls indicating that a strong majority of union households last year voted in favor of state Marriage Protection Amendments. Such amendments were overwhelmingly approved by voters in 14 states, including heavily unionized states such as Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Oregon, and Nevada.

Nevertheless, in anticipation that the Executive Committee may refuse to rescind its resolution opposing the constitutional protection of marriage, the pro-family coalition is prepared with a countermeasure. The signatories have collectively committed to ensure that legal counsel and representation will be provided at no charge to any union members who -- in response to the resolution supporting homosexual marriage -- exercise their legal right to withhold funding from the national AFL-CIO and its affiliate unions.