Op-Ed Judge Walker Prop 8 Ruling
(TRENTON) One week has passed since the Perry v. Schwarzenegger decision in which Judge Vaughan Walker’s rhetoric and arguments overturned the votes of 6.8 million California voters. This case has the potential to have great magnitude on the underpinnings of our Republic. This is judicial tyranny in its highest form. The starkness of Judge Walker’s departure from the rule of law, in this case, is deeply disconcerting.
“The evidence shows that, by every available metric, opposite-sex couples are not better than their same-sex counterparts; instead, as partners, parents and citizens, opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples are equal,” Walker wrote in his exacting, 136-page opinion. What planet is this judge living on? Let me give the judge one readily available metric, biology. No, opposite sex couples are not and do not claim to be “superior” as Judge Walker suggested, but heterosexual couples sure are different than same-sex couples. In fact, many social science studies have indicated that children, on average, have better outcomes, in a healthy family consisting of their biological mom and dad. Does this indict single parents, adopted families, divorced homes, or same-sex couple homes? No it does not for there are in all cases exceptions to the rule. But, when it comes to public policy, we should for the benefit of the common good, hold up the Gold Standard. For this issue that is marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
One of the core issues put forth by those seeking to radically redefine marriage is that the law has taken away from them the right to marry. Quite the contrary, all homosexuals and lesbians still have that right. It has not been taken away from them. But, there is one qualification that they choose not to meet and that is to marry a person of the opposite sex. So in essence what they want is a “special” right to do so with a person of the same gender. Seeing their plight, legislators in New Jersey have given them 100% of rights and responsibilities that the State grants to married couples though the Civil Union law.
Since the enactment of the Civil Union law, same-sex activist have claimed the law is not working, that it is not providing the rights that they believe they are entitled to. Let’s look at the facts, that are very revealing. In New Jersey, with a current population of 8.6 million, about 250,000 of that number self identify as lesbians, gay, bi-sexual and trans-gendered (LGBT) citizens. As of August 8, 2010 in New Jersey there were 4,742 civil unions recorded by the State. As of the same ending date only 12 official complaints to the NJ Civil Rights Division have been filed. Nine of those complaints were resolved! This notion that civil unions are not working cannot be factually substantiated by anyone.
Tom Moran, states in one of his Star Ledger editorials that “at its core opposition to gay marriage is rooted in the ugly notion that gay unions are inferior.” That assertion is dead wrong! The core of opposition to gay “marriage” is rooted in the notion that gay unions are DIFFERENT! There is no way that two men or two women can bring to a relationship the same emotional, mental, biological and spiritual aspects that the joining of male and female in marriage brings.
As Paul Mulshine, who also writes for the Star Ledger pointed out in his column, the proper extension of where this is heading would be to allow those who claim to be bi-sexual to “marry” two people. Then what about polygamists, wouldn’t their right to marry include multiple people as well. We can see where this is going and it is not GOOD!
I believe at the root of what is happening here is a deep anxiety and deep longing for total acceptance of one’s behavior. That longing to be the same has lead us to where we are today, to the point of an activist group of people who now desire to radically redefine the word marriage and attach to it an arrangement that can never be marriage. Words do have meaning, and to us who believe marriage to mean what it has since the dawn of creation, we are passionately dedicated to fight for marriage to remain as the exclusive union of one man and one woman. That is not discrimination, it is natural. Finally, I close on this thought “to those who say as enlightened people we must open marriage to all sorts of combinations; I say you cannot redefine that which you did not create.” Ultimately, God has something to do with this, and all of the world’s major religious give credence to that.
Len Deo
The writer is President of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, a non-profit, public policy research and education organization dedicated to strengthening families through informed citizenship and improved public policy.
P.O. Box 6011; Parsippany, NJ 07054
info@njfpc.org
www.njfpc.org
