Neo-cons and Zealots and Homophobes, oh my!

The Arlington Group, a coalition of conservative religious organizations, quickly fired off to Bush political guru Karl Rove a private letter signed by such figures as Bauer, Don Wildmon of the American Family Association, Focus on the Family's James Dobson, conservative standard bearer Paul Weyrich and evangelist Jerry Falwell. They laid down a none-too-subtle threat that the Administration's "defeatist attitude" on gay marriage might make it "impossible for us to unite our movement on an issue such as Social Security privatization where there are already deep misgivings."

Oh for crying out loud, what the fuck are these guys afraid of? I know a lot of people who have problems with the idea of gay marriage but are OK with civil unions/domestic partnership (which they think grant the same rights as marriage, but doesn't), it's the word "marriage" that weirds them out. Even most of the folks who don't like gay people & think they shouldn't be allowed to marry, think amending the constitution is going to far (we've never amended the constitution to restrict rights before, talk about taking a step back).

So fine, these guys think they need a consitutional amendment to protect the sanctity of marriage that must be between a man and a woman because gays cannot procreate? They need to prove this by including the following in the proposed constitutional amendment to define, strengthen and protect the sacred bond of marriage and the stability of the American family:

1. Define marriage as a life-long committment between a man and a woman with the primary purpose of procreation and child-rearing
2. Revoke all no-fault divorce laws
3. Ensure all couples are suitably prepared for marriage prior to approving and issuing a marriage license

In order to achieve this, all couples should be required to go through and pass a state-mandated pre-marriage counseling program (or an equivalent religious program that meets state standards) prior to being granted a marriage license. Additionally:

• Unmarried couples who have a child out off wedlock without putting the child up for adoption, should be required to get married

• these couples will be required to go through specialized state mandated marriage counseling during the pregnancy

• Divorce will only be granted if/when a spouse is convicted of domestic abuse (of the other spouse or their children)/rape/child molestation/similarly violent crime and/or adultery
• In cases of adultery, a couple should be forced into legally mandated marriage counseling with first disclosure
  

• a child born of an adulterous relationship when the married partner does not have children with the current spouse would result in dissolution of the marriage (with penalty against the adulterer) and required marriage between the parents of the child
• in the case of a child born out of an adulterous relationship with one or more of the parents being married with minor children from the marriage, final determination of marital status, custody and any applicable penalties would be decided by family court
• these adulterous couples will be required to go through specialized state mandated marriage counseling programs and will not be allowed to divorce due to adultery (progressive criminal penalties for adultery will apply starting with first disclosure of adultery)

As marriage will be limited to heterosexual couples because the official purpose of marriage is primarily for procreation and child rearing, methods of reproduction outside of sexual intercourse will be made illegal in the US. Couples wanting to have children will be allowed to adopt; it is anticipated that all couples who marry will have children unless they are of advanced age at the time of marriage that precludes having children or they have children from a previous marriage (i.e., widows or those who were legally divorced as described due to one of the criminal acts described above - those convicted of crimes leading to divorce will not be allowed to remarry unless approved by family court).




Tags:gay marriage

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