Daniel Leddy notes how Democrats have abruptly changed their story on marriage in recent years:
... Among the prominent Democrats supporting DOMA were then-Senator and now Vice-President Joseph Biden, and Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Today, however, a mere five years later, the Democrats are singing a very different tune. Not only are they stumbling over themselves to repudiate DOMA, but the same Sen. Leahy is co-sponsoring a bill to repeal it.
Leddy also talks about some of the serious consequences of redefining marriage:
On July 6, 2006, New York’s highest court specifically rejected an equal protection challenge to New York’s marriage laws, holding instead that there is a rational basis for the state to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Next, when confronted with the inevitable “what’s the real harm?” argument, the Senate’s response should be this: A hornet’s nest of unintended consequences.
For instance, if marital status is conferred on same-sex couples, they are certain to initiate lawsuits against religious organizations that do not fully accommodate them.
Such legal actions could proceed under at least one section of New York’s Civil Rights Law and three sections of the state’s Executive Law.
Their likely result would be to present religious organizations with two horrible choices: Either surrender their deeply held beliefs and capitulate to the government, or sustain penalties ranging from being denied the use of public facilities to losing their tax-exempt status.
The fate of marriage in this state is an extremely serious issue.
