This is just weird: a guy from Britain who lives in Massachusetts lecturing the Governor of New Jersey on the sacred right of Americans ... to redefine marriage?
New Civitas Poll: Support for NC Marriage Amendment Growing; Lawsuit Could Have Positive Impact
March 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm
The latest poll results on the North Carolina Marriage Protection Amendment:
A majority, 64 percent, of North Carolina voters say they support a constitutional amendment that establishes marriage between one man and woman as the only recognized domestic legal union in the state.
Sixty-four percent of respondents said they support a constitutional amendment that says marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in the state. Thirty percent said they oppose it and six percent are undecided or do not know.
While Black voters continue to strongly back the marriage amendment by a 40% margin the biggest move this month over last was the move of unaffiliated voters from a plus 11 percent margin in January to a plus 24 percent margin in February in support of the marriage amendment.
When asked a follow up question concerning a lawsuit filed by the Guilford County Register of Deeds seeking to declare North Carolina's current marriage law unconstitutional, sixty percent of respondents said that would make them more likely to support the Amendment, which includes twenty percent of those who say they opposed the amendment when first asked. -- Civitas Institute
Left-Leaning PPP Poll: Maine SSM Still Failing to Achieve Majority Support
March 8, 2012 at 11:00 am
Left-leaning Public Policy Polling is trying to claim (like many pollsters did in 2009) that the people of Maine will legalize same-sex marriage if asked to vote on it again.
Notably, however, the amendment still fails to reach 50%.
In fact, support for the same-sex marriage ballot is the same now as it was in 2009 when the measure failed (47%):
It looks like Maine voters will reverse their 2009 decision and legalize gay marriage in the state this fall. 54% think that gay marriage should be legal to only 41% who think it should be illegal. And when we asked about the issue using the exact language voters will see on the ballot this fall, they say they're inclined to support the referendum by a 47-32 margin.
New Jersey News Outlets Trot Out UCLA's Tired "SSM = Economic Stimulus" Meme, Again
March 8, 2012 at 10:00 am
NBC 10 Philadelphia reports:
"If same-sex marriage is legalized in New Jersey, the state could see an economic boon of $119 million over three years, economic experts say."
Who are these supposed "economic experts"?
Later, NBC 10 claims this report is from the Philadelphia Business Journal.
But the Philly Business Journal, it turns out, is using the same source that all these outlets cite when they try to claim redefining marriage will stimulate the economy: the Williams Institute.
Yes, the same Williams Institute whose economic arguments Maggie Gallagher and I have debunked numerous times in the past.
For many gay marriage activists, if an argument doesn't work, just keep repeating it, over and over again.
Video: What's At Stake in the Marriage Debate?
March 8, 2012 at 9:00 am
Kalley Yanta explains in this latest Minnesota marriage minute what's at stake in the marriage debate:
"...two competing definitions of marriage. The union of any two people, regardless of gender, versus the understanding of virtually every nation throughout recorded history that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Under the law, one definition of marriage would not exist alongside the other, but in fact, marriage as we know it would be replaced with genderless marriage."
Obama Campaign Mum on Effort to Place SSM in Democratic Platform
March 8, 2012 at 8:00 am
Andrew Harmon at the gay newspaper The Advocate:
The Obama campaign isn't directly commenting on a growing number of national campaign co-chairs and congressional Democrats calling for a pro-marriage equality platform for the party.
In a conference call Wednesday with reporters, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said Democrats are “the big tent party” and touted the president’s “great record for siding with fundamental fairness” when asked by CNN’s Jessica Yellin about Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Democratic National Convention chair and Obama national co-chair who said he supported a marriage equality-inclusive platform during a Politico event in Washington, D.C. this morning.
But Messina said the platform committee has yet to be formed and didn't comment on whether the president would support a pro-marriage plank. Rather, he spoke of a presidential record that “stands in sharp contrast to the other side,” referring to a field of GOP presidential candidates who have opposed “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal and have sided with a federal constitutional amendment banning marriage rights for same-sex couples.
Mayor Villaraigosa joined a growing number of Obama national co-chairs who have called for the Democratic platform to include marriage equality support when the party convenes this fall in Charlotte, N.C. to nominate the president for reelection.
Marriage supporters need not apply...
March 7, 2012 at 4:36 pm
Dear Marriage Supporter,
He founded a successful law firm in his hometown of Delano, MN, just west of Minneapolis.
He spent six years in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
He won over 900,000 votes as the GOP candidate for Minnesota governor in 2010, losing to Mark Dayton by just four-tenths of one percentage point.
Tom Emmer's resume is hardly the resume of a radical extremist.
But his belief in marriage as the union of a husband and wife was just too much for Hamline University, where he was fired from his adjunct faculty position in the Hamline School of Business last fall.
Click here to watch Tom Emmer's story
in the latest Marriage ADA video!
NOM's Marriage ADA was created in 2011 to expose exactly this sort of blatant anti-marriage discrimination, bringing you the stories you will never hear in the mainstream news. Whether it's a town clerk forced to choose between her faith and her job, or foster parents denied children because of their religious beliefs, or a professor fired simply for beliefs which he holds—anti-marriage radicals have launched a campaign to paint marriage supporters as the equivalent of racist bigots, unfit for any position in the public sector.
But together we're fighting back. Click here to watch Tom's story and find out how you can help.
Piers Morgan Praises Kirk Cameron's Defense of Marriage and Morality as "Brave"
March 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Piers Morgan has been asking every social conservative who comes on his CNN program about their views on gay marriage and homosexuality.
Kirk Cameron, the star of Growing Pains, does an excellent job of reminding Piers that he's imposing his own value judgement when he asks his leading questions.
In fact, when asked about the interview later, Piers praised Kirk for being "honest to what he believed" and "brave" for sticking to his beliefs.
Here's one of their exchanges in the interview:
Morgan: "Some people would say that telling kids that being gay is a sin or getting [gay] married is a sin, that in itself is incredibly destructive and damaging in a country where seven states have legalized it..."
Cameron: "You have to also understand that you yourself are using a standard of morality to say that telling people such-and-such of a behavior is sinful. You're using a standard of morality to make that statement and say that is terribly destructive. So everyone is going to have a standard against..."
Cameron's views are his own and he defends them admirably. Watch the full exchange for yourself:
Cameron defended his comments in a statement to ABC Tuesday:
I should be able to express moral views on social issues, especially those that have been the underpinning of Western civilization for 2,000 years — without being slandered, accused of hate speech, and told from those who preach ‘tolerance’ that I need to either bend my beliefs to their moral standards or be silent when I’m in the public square. -- The Daily Caller
Studies: Children Raised by Lesbians Not Problem-Free
March 7, 2012 at 11:30 am
Over the last few years, a few published studies have claimed that children raised by same-sex couples compare favorably to — and sometimes even better than — children raised by moms and dads on measures of self-esteem and academics.
Those studies, in turn, have served as fodder for a media campaign that two loving parents are all children really need.
But a closer look at the research, says Glenn T. Stanton, Focus on the Family’s director of family formation studies, shows there are quite a few problems associated with those studies — both in the way they were conducted and in what they reveal.
According to a study published late last year in the Archive of Sexual Behavior, girls raised by lesbian mothers are seven times more likely to consider a same-sex encounter, and twice as likely to identify as lesbian or bisexual than those raised by heterosexual parents. They are also seven times more likely to use “the “morning after” pill.
“We already know that girls who grow up without fathers are more likely to be sexually adventurous, and it has a lot to do with being fatherless,” Stanton explained. “Two lesbians can be the most loving moms in the world, but they can’t give a girl the kind of positive attention and other-gendered affirmation she needs from a dad.”
While girls raised by lesbians tend to be much more sexually experimental than their peers, boys tend to be more sexually reticent.
Telegraph's O'Neill: "Gay Marriage is Now the Issue Through Which the Elite Advertises its Superiority Over the Redneck Masses"
March 7, 2012 at 10:15 am
Brendan O'Neill of the UK Telegraph:
"...gay marriage is more a tool of the elite than it is a demand of the demos [populace]. The thing motoring the gay-marriage campaign, its political engine, is not any longstanding desire among homosexuals to get married or an active, passionate demand from below for the right of men to marry men and women to marry women. No, its driving force, the reason it has been so speedily and heartily embraced by the political and media classes, is because it is so very useful as a litmus test of liberal, cosmopolitan values. Supporting gay marriage has become a kind of shorthand way of indicating one’s superiority over the hordes, particularly those of a religious or redneck persuasion.
... The bizarre emptying-out of political debate from the issue of gay marriage, and its transformation instead into a clear-cut moral matter that separates the good from the bad, shows what its backers really get out of it – a moral buzz, a rush of superiority as they declare, to anyone who will listen, that they are For Gay Marriage. In this sense, supporting gay marriage has become less a declaration of truly democratic instincts and more a kind of provocation. In declaring your support for gay marriage, you can provoke both fusty old religionists and the backward masses into expressions of disagreement or disgruntlement, and then bask in the glow of your own superior, better-informed outlook.
This is the reason gay marriage has become so central to modern political debate in America and Britain, despite there being almost no societal drive or urge behind it – because it lends itself brilliantly to expressions of a very elitist sensibility. It allows the upper echelons of society both to distance themselves from the old and the thick and to advertise their own mental, cultural and moral superiority.
North Carolina University Rules Campus Club Not Christian Enough
March 7, 2012 at 9:45 am
Christian organizations continue to be assaulted on college campuses across the nation. At the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, a Christian club is suing the school after it ruled that the group isn’t religious and so must allow students of other faiths — or no faith — to join and even be in leadership if it wants to receive university recognition.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which is representing the group “Make Up Your Own Mind,” pointed out that the university’s non-discrimination policy includes an exemption for student groups that require their members and leaders to embrace the same beliefs. The exemption states, “Student groups that select their members on the basis of commitment to a set of beliefs (e.g., religious or political beliefs) may limit membership and participation in the group to students who, upon individual inquiry, affirm that they support the group’s goals and agree with its beliefs.”
But when the Make Up Your Own Mind club applied for recognition under the exemption, university officials denied their request, insisting that the club is not sufficiently religious because it is “not affiliated with a church but rather a local non-profit organization.” But the ADF noted that the university’s qualifications for religious organizations do not require that they be affiliated with a church, and the school recognizes other religious organizations that have no church affiliation.
Additionally, noted the conservative legal advocacy group, the Christian club has a clear religious mission and purpose, and because of that requires its leaders to agree with its statement of faith and its overtly pro-life values.
Brunswick, NC Commissioners Vote to Support Marriage Protection Amendment
March 7, 2012 at 9:00 am
Local WECT 6 reports:
Brunswick County commissioners officially supported a proposed amendment to the state's constitution that would define marriage as between a man and a woman at their Monday night meeting.
A resolution supporting the Defense of Marriage Act was a part of the board's consent agenda, which the board approved as a whole.
... Jinny Quaglia said she believes in the commissioners approval tonight. She said the elected leaders did their job by voting in favor of the majority's opinion.
"Marriage should be between one man and one woman," said Quaglia, "and I think that most people agree with that."
All of North Carolina will decide if the Defense of Marriage Act and a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage is right for the state on May 8.
UK Telegraph's Stanley: Hollywood Trying to Make Gay Marriage Inevitable
March 6, 2012 at 12:00 pm
The UK Telegraph's Tim Stanley on Hollywood trying to make gay marriage culturally inevitable as the legal and political attempts to redefine marriage falter:
On Saturday night, Google and YouTube will be live-streaming the premier of “8,” a play about the federal trial that overturned a California law banning gay marriage. It’s based on court transcripts and purports to tell the objective truth, although its politics are pretty brazen. The play is written by the talented screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J Edgar) and stars anyone who is anyone who ever voted Democrat – George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis and what feels like the entire cast of Glee. This is how Hollywood thinks you can change hearts and minds – by putting on a show!Tinseltown’s methods have never changed, but its politics certainly have. Can you imagine Bob Hope in 1956 throwing a telethon for transgendered rights? “Pick up your phones, folks. All we need is another $10,000 and we can make every bathroom in Burbank unisex…”
Supporters of gay marriage have wisely moved away from trying to win by the ballot box; the proposition has been rejected by citizens in 31 referendums. Now activists prefer to pursue their demands through the judiciary or local legislatures. California was an example of the former, overturning the result of a popular vote that took place in 2008.
...Despite consistent public opposition, there is a growing sense of inevitability about gay marriage. And Hollywood should take credit, for beneath the political radar it has affected a cultural revolution. Turn on the TV in America and you are bombarded with images of homosexuality as a social norm. Shows that showcase gay characters include American Horror Story, 30 Rock, Modern Family, Being Human, Game of Thrones (yes, really), Broadwalk Empire, Law and Order, Downton Abbey and Southland. A significant number of these (including Glee, Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf) are aimed at teenagers. Even the comic Archie featured a homosexual union in its latest edition. The result is that while adults huff and puff about the ethics of gay marriage, a lot of youngsters are growing up acculturated to it.
Hawaii Governor Refuses to Defend State Laws Protecting Marriage
March 6, 2012 at 11:00 am
CitizenLink explains how respect for the rule of law is also a casualty of the push for gay marriage under any means necessary:
On Thursday, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a brief asking permission to officially defend a Hawaii constitutional amendment on marriage and a state law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie has declared publicly that since he supports same-sex marriage, his administration won’t defend the law or the state constitution. Three people filed a lawsuit in January seeking to strike down the marriage-definition amendment, as well as another Hawaii law allowing homosexuals to enter into civil unions. According to the lawsuit, Jackson v. Abercrombie, civil unions granting same-sex couples all the rights and privileges of marriage aren’t enough.
Now, ADF — which represents the Hawaii Family Forum — is hoping for another court victory. The group was part of a team that was given the right to defend California’s marriage amendment, Prop. 8, when the state refused to do so.
AP: Same-Sex Custody Battle Could Redefine Legal Motherhood
March 6, 2012 at 10:00 am
A custody battle in Florida between two lesbians could fuel the growing national debate over the definition of motherhood.
... The women, now in their 30s and known in court papers only by their initials, were both law enforcement officers in Florida. One partner donated an egg that was fertilized and implanted in the other. That woman gave birth in 2004, nine years into their relationship.
But the Brevard County couple separated two years later, and the birth mother eventually left Florida with the child without telling her former lover. The woman who donated the egg and calls herself the biological mother finally tracked them down in Australia with the help of a private detective.
Their fight over the now 8-year-old girl is before the state Supreme Court, which has not announced whether it will consider the case. A trial judge ruled for the birth mother and said the biological mother has no parental rights under state law, adding he hoped his decision would be overturned.
... in a blistering dissent, Judge C. Alan Lawson said the trial judge got it right. A child can have only one mother, he wrote.
The court shouldn't recognize two mothers "unless we are also willing to invalidate laws prohibiting same-sex marriage, bigamy, polygamy or adult incestuous relationships on the same basis," Lawson said.
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