New Jerseyans Must Unite and Pass Marriage Amendment
Len Deo, President, NJ Family Policy Council

Politics may divide the nation, but on the issue of preserving marriage people are united. In all three states where constitutional marriage amendments were on the ballot, they passed, bringing the total to thirty states where citizens have voted to preserve marriage between one man and one woman. Majorities in conservative and liberal states and people of all races and creeds have rightly chosen to preserve our foundational institution.

Nevertheless the heavily biased NJ Civil Union Review commission (CURC), released a new report this week, full of wild, unsubstantiated claims to pressure the NJ Legislature to redefine marriage in 2009. A state constitutional amendment is needed now for New Jerseyans to preserve marriage between one man and one woman because it appears citizens cannot sit back and trust the fate of marriage to a few Trenton insiders. Neither can we afford to wait for the State Supreme Court to be brought back into the process, because we will not be able to stop that unchecked branch of government from redefining marriage for all of us. The pressure surrounds us in NJ. In Connecticut, the Supreme Court recently ruled – without the consent of the people – to redefine marriage there, and activists in NY are planning to move legislation now that there is a liberal, Democrat majority. In addition, Bay Windows, a New England gay newspaper reports the activist group Massachusetts Equality will be teaming with NJ gay activists to push the NJ legislature as well.

As for New Jerseyans, an October 2007 Polling Company survey showed 61% agree that, “Same-sex couples have a right to live as they choose, but they do not have the right to redefine marriage for the rest of society.” So why are some of our leaders like Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts and Governor Corzine speaking out in support of redefining marriage and supporting the new civil Union Review Commission report’s faulty conclusion that marriage should be redefined? Instead, our elected officials should be voting right now to let the people decide this issue at the ballot box next November.

Marriage must be preserved between one man and one woman only in NJ because it is vitally important to our children and grandchildren. It is priceless in the impact it has on how children grow up and learn to be equipped to form stable families of their own. Star Parker, a nationally recognized female black commentator, writer and President of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education, (a non-profit think tank for public policy on issues of race, poverty, and inner city neighborhoods) wrote that California’s new marriage amendment was a victory for kids. “Society should not be encouraging any more experimentation with alternative family arrangements”, she stated, after seeing the social welfare fallout from single parenthood and cohabiting families.” The CURC’s statement in their new report that redefining marriage would not cause any economic fallout is laughable.

Protecting one-man one-woman marriage is about preserving the healthiest, ideal relationship for individuals to strive to attain; not just for their own betterment, but for their children, the government, and all of society. Perhaps the most serious false claim made in the Civil Union Review Commission report is that children would somehow “benefit” by society’s recognizing same-sex parents as “married”. In Scandinavia, where same-sex unions have been legal longest, government data shows that same-sex unions break up at a significantly higher rate, valid research shows that children raised in these households are more confused about their sexual identity, and more likely to be promiscuous, and LGB youth are more likely to experience teen pregnancy according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in Massachusetts .

Calling same-sex unions “marriage,” clearly redefines marriage; it is not about granting civil rights any more than allowing polygamous unions would be. Neither is it about “tolerance.” If we allow marriage to be redefined and maintain the hate or “thought” crime laws which limit people’s speech critical of same-sex relationships, the attacks on our freedoms will escalate as they have in other countries like the UK and Canada.

Apparently, Canadians have decided they’ve had enough. In October, they elected a strong, majority conservative party and one of their first actions was to overwhelmingly pass a resolution to repeal their hate crime laws . These laws which target certain thoughts and criminalize speech – particularly in conjunction with their same-sex marriage law – have troublingly removed Canadian free speech rights in far too many costly battles. There is no reason for NJ to go down that road when we can learn from the mistakes of the Canadian experiment and some right here in Massachusetts. Just ask parents in Massachusetts where judges ruled that schools actually had a duty to normalize homosexual relationships to children and the administration has no obligation to notify parents or let them opt-out their children. Preserve marriage now!

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California, the largest liberal state, often compared politically to NJ, passed their amendment 52.5% to 47.5% even in the face of egregious scare tactic commercials and $40 million spent by same-sex "marriage" proponents.

How many actually are raising children and even if it was % (compare to "married couples with children use . Do these people think New Jerseyans are stupid?? Use their statement about 8 formal complaints.

The numbers speak for themselves: what we're talking about here is a projection, even of 3108 couples ONLY 8 FORMAL COMPLAINTS HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE NJDOCR. (NBC tv Len shared)

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¹ Interview at NJ Family Policy Council Trenton Marriage Rally, Oct. 2008 and Dec. 5, 2008 e-mail. Info on Star Parker @ http://www.urbancure.org/starparker.asp .

² Bay Windows, June 6, 2007. article has been removed from newspaper's website.

³ Conservative Party Votes "Overwhelmingly" to Repeal Hate Speech Law, November 14, 2008,
http://ezralevant.com/2008/11/conservative-party-votes-overw.html .

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