Marriage Protection Amendment

The Marriage Protection Amendment formerly named and defeated Federal Marriage Amendment has once again been introduced into the Senate. This time the amendment has 26 co-sponsors and it is rumored the House will be introducing their own version of the amendment.

Why do we even need a MPA? The answer is simple… we do not! We already have laws on the federal and state level that say that marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman, so there is really no need to have this constitutional amendment passed and ratified. It would be redundant to do this, and I for one, do not support this effort as I did not support the last effort.

Republicans know that in order to attempt to get this constitutional amendment passed they need to do it while the GOP controls both the House and Senate. George W. Bush will be a lame-duck president in two years, and in order to get any social reforms like this passed he must do it before that time. In two years, it will not matter what he wants pushed for he will not be president in the next term and the senators and representatives who would appose his efforts will not have to answer to him.

We as a country should fight this attempt to write discrimination into our most cherished document, the constitution of the United States of America. With many states enacting measures that give all rights and benefits of the masses (heterosexuals) to the minority (homosexuals), we need to reconsider where our priorities lie. Why aren’t our priorities aimed at the ill, children who go hungry, the homeless, the jobless, those without health insurance, those who cannot support themselves, our education system, and our own government? Why, because the man who was elected by the conservative right needs to stay on their good side and pay for his support with these social reforms. He even admitted that there would not be enough support to pass the measure, but that has not stopped members of his party from trying once again. It (the previous attempt) failed last time by a wide margin, and I am sure this time it will fail again.

Americans need to wake up and smell the coffee. There are other things going wrong in our country that we need to work on before we go and define someone else’s morality. What is good for one person may not be good for another. We, as gay people, need to shift our focus on equal rights first before we push for measures like equal marriage rights. Be happy with civil unions when we win them. Worry about adoption and protecting your person before we try to get such a hotly contested topic passed. And for the rest of our populous, let’s remove the religious rights from our civil unions and have it like most European countries. You have a civil union with the magistrate and a religious one with your church of choice. That way everyone can be happy and we do not have to force morality on anyone. We gay people can have our civil marriage, and the heterosexuals can have both the civil and their religious. And if your religion allows, have a gay religious service as well.

Worry about the small and weak… not about regulating the countries morality when it does not suit everyone else. We cannot be the land of the free and the home of the brave if we are weak and write discrimination into our most treasured document!

Jase ;0)



Jason P. Ruel
Editor, Gay Lesbian News

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