Politics
Tuesday March 9, 2004
Developments in the U.S. Battle to Save Traditional Marriage
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March 9, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Even though no US state explicitly allows homosexuals to register their unions as marriage, individual civil servants, judges and officials are continuing to push the legal envelope.
Homosexual activists have argued that the way to win their fight for legal recognition of their liaisons as marriage is not through the legislatures, where public opinion still holds sway with elected representatives, but through manipulation of the local bureaucracy and judicial overrides of laws. The tactic worked smoothly in Ontario and is soon to be imposed by a sympathetic Canadian government on the rest of the country by judicial order. In the US, because of the existence of the legal concept of "checks and balances" intended to protect democratic freedoms, the process is more complicated.
In Multnomah County, Oregon, a judge has refused to block county officials from issuing marriage licenses to homosexual partners. Judge Dale Koch said the pro-family group, Defense of Marriage Coalition, failed to convince him to issue a temporary restraining order. Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers is reviewing state law and the Oregon regarding marriage.
In Massachusetts, a 1913 law forbids town clerks from issuing marriage licenses ''if such marriage would be void if contracted'' in the couple's home state. Town clerks are awaiting instructions from either the attorney general or the governor on how to handle homosexual couples coming to get "married" from out of state. ''As the law is written now, anyone outside the jurisdiction who cannot be married legally there can't be married here. That might be all 50 states,'' said Linda Hutchenrider, president of the Massachusetts Town Clerks' Association.
Maine's House and Senate have each rejected proposals that sought to draft a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. The sponsor of the measure, Rep. Brian Duprey, has since written a letter to Attorney General G. Steven Rowe asking if he would enforce Maine's statute barring same-sex marriages if a municipality in the state issued marriage licenses to gay couples.
In New Jersey, a homosexual couple has been "married" with a license issued by the Asbury Park city officials. "As a show of support to the city's gay community…the City of Asbury Park… will commence the issuance of licenses to same-sex couples and the solemnization of marriage between same-sex couples, immediately, as a matter of fundamental civil and constitutional rights," said a spokeswoman for City Clerk, Dawn Tomek. New Jersey is one of 12 states that have no statute expressly banning same-sex marriages and nothing in its state law defines marriage as the exclusive province of opposite-sex couples.
In New York, the Ulster County District Attorney is considering charges against two ministers who "married" homosexual partners without a license.
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