Family Restoration Means Marriage Stability - Not Marriage Expansion

Marriage as the foundation for strong families has been under incredible stress for a few decades in the form of what is largely known as family breakdown, but now it faces some high profile challenges, despite the express democratic and judicial process.

The President and Department of Justice unilaterally decided that they would no longer execute the laws of the United States and will no longer defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which this blog discussed earlier, overstepping basic constitutional principles of authority.

A new Institute of Marriage and Public Policy (iMAPP) policy brief by William C. Duncan concludes the majority of courts, as well as the majority of Americans, have rejected the idea that same-sex marriage is a right. For a summary of court decisions over the last decade, click here or go to www.marriagedebate.com.   

Rhodes Island (see http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText11/HouseText11/H5012.pdf) Maryland, and Hawaii intend to sign into law new legislation to endorse same sex unions (see http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/2011/02/other_states_may_extend_rights.html).

The majority of residents in most jurisdictions see the harmful consequences of marriage expansion for family stability.  Opponents in Rhode Island understand that protection for those opposing same sex marriage for religious reasons are inadequate, noting that a marriage counselor will not have the personal or professional freedom to refuse to work with same sex couples.

Despite the fact that 90 percent of the states protect marriage as the union only between one man and one woman, the Obama administration has chosen to please advocates of same sex interests, abandoning its duty to the American people. This decision could impact every pending marriage case, including the current legal effort to defend California's Proposition 8, and will have serious ramifications for the future of marriage in America.

Concern for family stability is important for most Americans because restoring strong families to our society will determine the future of the nation.  Where marriage has been expanded toward same sex unions a domino effect of further cultural and societal breakdown seems to follow. 

Read more about this research at Lynne Marie Kohm, The Collateral Effects of Civil Unions on Family Law, 11 Widener J. Pub. L. 451 (2002); and Lynne Marie Kohm, Megan Lindsey, and William Catoe, International Examination of Same Sex Parent Adoption, 5 Regent U. J. Int'l L. 237 (2007)(presented at the International Family Law Society European Regional Conference, Chester, England, July 2007).