News

By Jonquil Frankham

ARIZONA, October 23, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Recently the New Haven chapter of the Knights of Columbus donated $100,000 to yesformarriage.com, the group campaigning in support of Arizona’s Proposition 102 – the latest in a series of generous donations that have significantly bolstered the chances that marriage will be protected in the state come Nov. 4.

Proposition 102 is a motion to write the true definition of marriage into the state constitution. Same-sex “marriage” is already illegal under Arizona state law, but a constitutional amendment would prevent the possibility that it will be made legal at any point in the future. In particular, such an action would prevent activist judges from arbitrarily redefining marriage – as has happened in the three other states where same-sex “marriage” is currently legal.

Proposition 102 is worded: “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.”

So far, the campaign promoting the proposition has received over $6,000,000 in donations, while “Arizona Together,” the official campaign against the proposition, has raised just $600,000, reports the Phoenix Business Journal. Yes for Marriage uses its funds for advertising, which has consisted both of television ads and street signs reading “Yes on 102.”

A statewide poll in September found 49% in favor of the proposition, with 42% opposed and 9% undecided.

Proposition 102 is a less stringent form of a measure that was voted down two years ago. Proposition 107 was put forward in 2006, and would have prohibited recognition of civil unions as well as same-sex “marriage” in the state. The motion was defeated 51.8% – 48.2%.

Opponents of Prop. 102 have largely argued that because same-sex “marriage” is already technically illegal in the state, the measure is unnecessary. “Prop. 102 is an unnecessary distraction from more pressing issues that face Arizona,” Arizona Together spokeswoman Cynthia Leigh Lewis has said about the measure.

In an advertisement for Yes for Marriage, Phoenix’ bishop, the Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, however, calls the “definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman” a “non-negotiable” issue. In the ad the bishop highlights the manner in which same-sex “marriage” was legalized in California by the Californian Supreme Court last May, saying that the passage of Proposition 8 will prevent judges and legislators from circumventing the will of the people in Arizona as they did in California.

In 2000, Californians adopted Proposition 22 to protect marriage and maintain its definition as a union between one man and one woman. But in May 2008, California judges redefined marriage to include same-sex couples against the wishes of the public.