Defeat of Marriage Amendment Reinforces Family Stability and Personal Rights - July 18, 2006

Norton Says Defeat of Marriage Amendment
Reinforces Family Stability and Personal Rights
July 18, 2006

Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today issued a statement following House defeat of a constitutional amendment to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples.

"As they approach the end of a failed session of Congress, the Republicans have reached for the usual marriage amendment straw destined to fail in the House as it already has in the Senate. Every American should be offended by today's debate. I am offended, as an American and as a constitutional lawyer, at a proposal that would defy our history of removing bias from the Constitution to insert it on yet another issue. I am offended as an American who supports and promotes the marriage of loving couples. I was unable to be present at the debate today because I was speaking at a forum on young African American men. My emphasis there was the importance of marriage in a society that has steadily devalued the centrality of this important institution. I returned to the House to hear my colleagues speak against marriage even for loving gay couples, and to denigrate their roles as parents. These same colleagues, so quick to decry relationships out of marriage among traditional couples, invite gay couples to form just such relationships, and then accuse them of promiscuity. In complicated, free, secular societies, forming and sustaining family life has become more difficult than ever. Families, gay and straight, need our respect, our support, and yes, our love, not only in the precious American tradition of protecting personal and family rights, but also because these relationships promote the stability for which modern societies hunger today. When we embrace all of our families, we improve on America's failing family life and add value to our family traditions."