tricityherald.com / Opinions / Columnists

reprint or license Print E-Mail

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009

Referendum 71- No: Marriage a tradition that shouldn't be changed

By Larry Stickney, Special to the Herald

On November's ballot is Referendum 71, which contains Senate Bill 5688, one of the most hotly contested bills ever. Why? Because, in effect, SB 5688 legalizes homosexual marriage. Legalizing homosexual marriage will be the most profound public policy change in our state's history.

We believe that there are some serious questions that need to be considered before we throw out thousands of years of core family structure and redefine the institution of marriage. Homosexual activists claim that SB-5688 s not about "marriage." But, their own leadership says otherwise:

Sen. Ed Murray told the Seattle Times on Jan. 10, 2007 when announcing the Domestic Partnership Bill, "The goal is marriage equality. It's an important statement that our eyes are on the prize, and the prize is marriage."

Representative Jamie Pederson told the Times on Jan. 28, 2009, that SB 5688 will give homosexuals "A bridge until they can legally marry."

Sen. Murray told the Times on May 17, 2009, that the domestic partnership expansion - SB 5688 - is an, "incremental approach ... a strategic plan."

SB 5688 is the last incremental step to same-sex marriage in Washington!

If homosexual marriage becomes legal, the next step for homosexual activists is to force public schools to teach children that homosexual unions are normal, require churches to perform same-sex ceremonies, and take away your right to speak against it, as has now become law in Canada.

Please remember that homosexual marriage is not a civil right. In fact, civil rights leaders reject this assertion. Even civil rights activist Jesse Jackson states: "Gays were never called three-fifths of a person in the Constitution and they did not require the Voting Rights Act to have the right to vote."

The result of legalizing homosexual marriage in Scandinavian countries has been devastating. Additionally, there are thousands of social science studies that prove the negative outcomes for children who lack both a mother and a father in their home.

SB 5688 is a Trojan Horse that was crafted to deceive voters into believing that it's not about marriage. Its writers know that a large majority of Americans are opposed to homosexual marriage. SB 5688 gives homosexuals every right of marriage, except the name. If a majority of Washingtonians are duped into voting to accept SB 5688, believing that it's about "domestic partner benefits," homosexual activists then will simply litigate through the courts, claiming discrimination, as they did in California, and overturn our state's Defense of Marriage Act. That is their plan.

In addition, citizens aged 62 and older were included in the bill only to help the homosexual community garner their support. Yet, there is little of consequence in SB 5688 that heterosexual domestic partners 62 and older cannot get now from a simple power of attorney. Bottom line, senior citizens are being used!

Opposition to SB 5688 is not about hate. It's about love. It's about loving our children enough to consider fully the long-term effects of such major social engineering on their futures. It's about keeping the teaching of morals at home, not codifying into law what a majority believe to be immoral behavior. No nation in history that openly embraced homosexuality to this degree has ever survived.

Rejecting SB 5688 preserves the most fundamental of human institutions - the marriage of one man and one woman. It is not denying a right from someone. It is rejecting an attempt to redefine marriage.

The millions of dollars in new spending and costs of SB 5688 still have not been fully revealed. Our state is facing huge budget deficits already. New government spending of this magnitude simply is irresponsible.

* Larry Stickney is the campaign manager for Protect Marriage Washington, protectmarriagewa.com.

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@