Today the D.C. Court of Appeals heard arguments to put a measure on the ballot in DC to decide whether or not gay marriage will be legal in the District. Concerned Women for America released the following statement from CEO Penny Nance regarding the hearing:
The 19th century Supreme Court Jurist Joseph Story said: “Marriage is treated by all civilized societies as a peculiar and favored contract. It is in its origin a contract of Natural Law.”
We are here today in hopes that the D.C. Court of Appeals will allow the residents of the District of Columbia their voice in deciding whether or not marriage should be redefined in D.C.
The issue of the protection of the traditional definition of marriage transcends racial, gender and party lines.
According to an AP exit poll in California, 70 percent of African-Americans voted in favor of Proposition 8 to protect marriage in the 2008 election. Virtually all of these same respondents voted for Barack Obama for President.
In just the past 18 months, some of the most liberal states have decided to protect marriage either by statewide vote or through their state legislatures. Both California and Maine saw voters cast ballots to protect marriage. State legislatures in both New York and New Jersey voted down bills that would have legalized same-sex “marriage.”
In every state this issue has been put on the ballot — 30 states in all — voters have emphatically turned out to support marriage and reject attempts to redefine marriage.
However, proponents of “gay marriage” do not care about the tension this new law causes religious charities in their care for the poor. They do not care if it threatens the religious freedom of those who disagree. They do not care if it threatens businesses who cannot bend to their will, and they do not care that what they seek redefines the bedrock of society.
This is not about tolerance, for tolerance already exists. This is about forced recognition via the heavy hand of government.