Burnt Orange Report

Gay Marriage Debate

By Byron LaMasters

Tonight the University Democrats debated the Young Conservatives of Texas on the issue of gay marriage equality. The University Democrats spoke in favor of gay marriage and the Young Conservatives of Texas spoke against. I was one of the three debate participants for the University Democrats. Since the other two members of the team had debated in high school, they gave me the easy job - the opening statement. We won the coin toss, so I basically read my statement. I'll post more on my thoughts on the debate later, but here's my prepared remarks for the opening statement:

On February 11th President George W. Bush launched an attack on an entire class of American citizens with his call for the Federal Marriage Amendment. This amendment would write into our constitution a clause that would state that only a marriage between a man and a woman is legally valid in America. The other side frequently speaks of “defending the institution of marriage” in its rationale for supporting this amendment to our constitution. The fact of the matter is that the Federal Marriage Amendment would do nothing to “defend the institution of marriage”. In their press release publicizing this debate, the Young Conservatives of Texas Aaron Gibson stated that “If the United States fails to define the institution of marriage as between a man and a woman it opens the door to future court challenges to the definition of marriage. If the country doesn’t act, marriage could be unrecognizable in 50 years or less”. Their argument is the same argument that was made against interracial marriage a generation ago, and against coverture, where a woman was literally considered property of her husband in past centuries. Our founders may not have imagined marriage as we know it today, but in their infinite wisdom, they created a timeless document, our constitution to allow for our nation to adapt to changing times. The institution of marriage has constantly evolved in America to become more inclusive, and give greater equality to both individuals in a marriage. Our constitutional democratic system is based on laws that reflect our beliefs and marriage laws are no exception.

Marriage has changed dramatically in just the past century. In addition to coverture and interracial marriage, marriage has withstood changes such as the widespread usage of birth control and the still increasing numbers of women in the workplace. Marriage has withstood the test of time and it will continue to. In fact, of all threats to the institution of marriage, gays and lesbians are about as far down the list as it gets. Does anyone know of any married couples who got divorced because of gays and lesbians receiving greater civil rights? I didn’t think so. Many of the gay and lesbian couples married in San Francisco last month waited in line to get married longer than Britney Spears marriage lasted. Britney Spears is a much greater threat to the institution of marriage than any of the married homosexual couples in San Francisco. If the conservatives in this country were really serious about promoting the institution of marriage, then they would do something constructive to make married life better for working families such as helping families attain health care coverage or helping Americans find good paying jobs to lessen the burden for ordinary families in America. Instead, conservatives are more interested in singling out and marginalizing an entire class of law abiding American citizens.

In fact supporting gay marriage equality is fundamentally a conservative and pro-family position. Gay marriage won’t abolish the family as we know it. In fact, it will strengthen it. Gays and lesbians are often attacked by conservatives as sexually promiscuous, but when gays and lesbians ask to be included in an institution that promotes monogamy, the conservatives say they can’t have it.

Gay marriage is good for children. Millions of children in America are growing up in gay and lesbian homes. Many are biological children of one partner, and many are adopted. However, in many places only one parent is allowed custody rights. Today, in many places should the parent with custody rights die, then the child could be sent to an orphanage instead of being able to live with the parent they spent their life growing up with.

Full civil marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is the only solution to the injustice of the current discrimination against gay and lesbian couples in marriage. Marriage is both a religious and legal institution. Gay and lesbian couples are not asking the government to require any religion to support gay marriage equality. Rather, gay and lesbian couples demand the same legal rights and benefits of marriage that are often taken for granted by everyone else.

Here’s just a few of the benefits of marriage as defined by the Human Rights
Campaign:

“Married couples have the automatic right to visit each other in the hospital and make medical decisions. Same-sex couples can be denied the right to visit a sick or injured loved one in the hospital. Married people receive Social Security payments upon the death of a spouse. Despite paying payroll taxes, gay and lesbian workers receive no Social Security survivor benefits. A married person automatically inherits all the property of his or her deceased spouse without paying estate taxes. A gay or lesbian taxpayer is forced to pay estate taxes on property inherited from a deceased partner. While a married person can roll a deceased spouse’s 401(k) funds into an IRA without paying taxes, a gay or lesbian American who inherits a 401(k) can end up paying up to 70 percent of it in taxes and penalties. Married workers are legally entitled to unpaid leave from their jobs to care for an ill spouse. Gay and lesbian workers are not entitled to family leave to care for their partners. Bi-national families are commonly broken up or forced to leave the country to stay together. The reason: U.S. immigration law does not permit American citizens to petition for their same-sex partners to immigrate. Married couples have a legal right to live together in nursing homes. Because they are not legal spouses, elderly gay or lesbian couples do not have the right to spend their last days living together in nursing homes. Laws protect married seniors from being forced to sell their homes to pay high nursing home bills; gay and lesbian seniors have no such protection. After the death of a worker, most pension plans pay survivor benefits only to a legal spouse of the participant. Gay and lesbian partners are excluded from such pension benefits.”

Some argue that Civil Unions are a fair compromise. We disagree. While Civil
Unions may be a step in the right direction towards marriage equality for gays and lesbians, it is a policy the codifies the principle of “separate and
unequal”. Civil Unions are marriage lite and do not give gay and lesbian couples the same equal legal rights awarded to heterosexuals. A Civil Union performed in one state has no legal recognition in another, whereas marriage is
recognized across state lines. Civil Unions recognized by a state could give gay and lesbian couples the same local and state-level benefits and protections of marriage, but they give gays and lesbians none of the over 1000 federal benefits and protections of marriage. Civil Unions are not marriage and we should not settle for anything less!

The institution is more at risk from restricting gay and lesbian couples from marrying than from allowing them to do so. The definition of marriage must be allowed to adapt to society’s needs less it become obsolete. Anyone dedicated to the preservation of limited liberties and freedoms through limited government cannot abide by an attempt to restrict an individual’s right to marry by the federal government. Gay marriage is good for families, gay marriage provides stability for children, and providing gay marriage is essential to ensuring the provision of equal rights to every American citizen. To protect the institution of marriage the conservatives should instead come forward with programs such as federal childcare, universal health insurance, and help reduce the economic strain placed on many families today in order to truly help the married American family today. Gay marriage is the only solution to this injustice and important civil rights issue of our generation.