October 22, 2008
Column #1,417
Traditional Vs. Same-Sex Marriage in California
by Mike McManus

In his Presidential Forum, Pastor Rick Warren asked Senator Obama on August 16, to "Define marriage."

"I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman..."

"Would you support a Constitutional Amendment with that definition?" Warren asked.

"No, I would not." he responded.  "Why not?"

"Because historically we have not defined marriage in our Constitution. It's been a matter of state law that has been our tradition...The reason that people think there needs to be a Constitutional Amendment, some people believe, is because of the concern about same-sex marriage. 

"I am not somebody who promotes same sex marriage but I do believe in civil unions. ...For gay partners to want to visit each other in the hospital,.I don't think in any way inhibits my core beliefs about what marriages are."

Similarly, when Senator Biden was asked by Gwen Ifill, during the Vice Presidential Debate, "Do you support gay marriage?" he responded, "No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side, what constitutes marriage.  We do not support that."

If both men were being honest, they would support California's Proposition 8, which proposes adding 14 words to California's Constitution: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."  In fact, both oppose it.

These exact words were enacted originally as a state law in 2000 when 4.6 million Californians voted  in a referendum for traditional marriage, and only 2.9 million favored gay marriage. It passed in 52 of 58 counties, losing only in the San Francisco area.

However, that 61.4 percent margin was overturned by a narrow 4-3 vote of the California Supreme Court in May declaring same-sex marriage is a "right" under the Constitution.

Therefore, a million Californians put Proposition 8 on the ballot to enshrine the language above, guaranteeing historic marriages of a mother and father who bring up children.

Appearing Monday on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," when asked if he supported Prop 8, Biden responded, "If I lived in California, I'd clearly vote against Prop. 8."

In June Obama wrote to the Alice V. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, opposing Prop 8. The San Francisco Chronicle, headlined, "Obama opposes proposed ban on gay marriage."

What's more he said that he favored the radical stand to overturn the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton to protect any state from having to recognize gay marriage from another state.

"I support extending fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal laws," he wrote.  "That is why I support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act...and  passage of laws to protect LGBT Americans from hate crimes and employment discrimination.  And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states."

However Obama lacked the honesty to assert such extreme left-wing stands two months later on the Warren show. Instead he pretended to support marriage as "a union of man and woman." When pressed, he said he only favored "civil unions" for gays.

What's wrong with gay marriage? 

Consider a ruling by the highest court in liberal New York: "The Legislature could rationally believe that it is better...for children to grow up with both a mother and father.  Intuition and experience suggest that a child benefits from having before his or her eyes, every day, living models of what both a man and a woman are like..."

"By limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples New York is not engaging in sex discrimination.  The limitation does not put men and women in different classes, and give one class a benefit not given to the other."

California's Supreme Court ruled by one vote that all have a right to "have government sanction all family forms as having equal dignity." Thus, a man might have two or three wives.

In August, a poll reported Californians opposed Prop 8 by 54 percent to 40 percent.

Supporters of traditional marriage raised $26 million to run ads. One featured Rob and Robin Wirthlin from Massachusetts, which approved gay marriage in 2003. Their second grader told of a teacher "who read a silly book of a prince who married a prince, not a princess."

When told their child could not excluded from classes read such books, the Wirthlins sued, but lost. The judge ruled, "The state must teach these things to children before they make up their own minds," Rob said.

Polls now favor passage by 48 to 45 percent.  But pro-gay forces raised $16 million, with $1 million from the teacher's union and much more from Hollywood, for counter ads.

"If we can raise enough money, we will win," said traditionalist Maggie Gallagher of www.NationforMarriage.org.  Consider contributing.