(LifeSiteNews) — California, Colorado, and Hawaii have all voted in 2024 to repeal the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.
Many commentators have pointed out that these states’ constitutional changes are largely symbolic measures after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision. However, these November ballot votes mark a years-long settlement of American popular opinion in favor of gay “marriage.” According to Pew Research, American support for homosexual “marriage” increased steadily from 2004 to 2017 and has hovered since then at about 60%.
California, Colorado, and Hawaii have not redefined marriage but rather done away with a definition altogether. Colorado has nixed its constitutional provision that “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.” Hawaii has eliminated a 1998 constitutional amendment that states that “the Legislature shall have the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.”
California has not only removed language in its Constitution “stating that marriage is only between a man and a woman” but has amended the constitution to recognize a “fundamental right to marry, regardless of sex or race.” The language used does not actually convey what the amendment intends, since adults already have a right to marry, regardless of their sex.
Critics have denounced the amendments not only for defying the truth of marriage and promoting the harm of children through same-sex couple adoption. Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council, warned that California’s amendment could potentially open the door to polygamy and child marriage.
“If you abolish the definition of marriage and say that marriage can mean anything, then marriage actually means nothing,” Keller pointed out.
Brittany Vessely, executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, pointed to the very purpose, or telos of marriage.
“Marriage is based on the truth that men and women are complementary, the biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman, and the social science that supports the reality that children need both a mother and a father to flourish,” Vessely told Catholic News Agency regarding Colorado’s “un-definition” of marriage. “This amendment rejects the truth of what marriage is.”
Same-sex “marriage” ultimately harms children because when same-sex couples are granted adoption rights, their children are deprived of either a mother or a father — and are thus missing a parent figure who irreplaceably fulfills certain emotional needs.
Moreover, numerous cases of child pornography and sexual abuse have been linked to “married” homosexuals.
Last March, a well-known Illinois veterinarian and dog show judge who is “married” to another man was arrested days before he could travel to California to take custody of a newborn baby boy whom he had purchased via surrogacy and allegedly planned to sexually assault. He was initially charged with possession of child pornography.
Last February, a Wisconsin county official in a homosexual “marriage” was arrested on child pornography charges believed to involve the man’s adopted prepubescent son. The man also performed as a drag queen with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an anti-Catholic hate group founded in San Francisco.
In an especially disturbing Georgia case, two “married” men were arrested in 2022 for sexually abusing and prostituting their adopted special-needs sons, who were ages six and eight when the years-long crimes allegedly began. The men were activists for homosexual “rights” and other woke causes.