By Gudrun Schultz
MADISON, Wisconsin, January 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Madison City Council voted this week to allow city officials to pledge their opposition to the state constitution’s ban on homosexual “marriage” during their swearing-in ceremonies.
After vowing to uphold the state constitution, officials in more than 500 city positions will be permitted to make a statement that the amendment “besmirches” the constitution, and pledge to work towards its removal.
“I pledge to work to eliminate this section from the constitution, and work to prevent any discriminatory impacts from its application,” the voluntary protest statement reads.
Madison Mayor David J. Cieslewicz supports the decision, defending the move by saying the protest statement would alleviate a “crisis of conscience” over the amendment.
“Many of us felt that we couldn’t, in good conscience, swear allegiance to a state constitution that openly discriminated against gays and lesbians,” Mayor Cieslewicz said, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Calling the pledge a political statement, he said it was not out of the ordinary to follow an oath of office with an “inauguration speech.” But others have said the pledge amounts to a conflict of interest on the part of city officials by vowing to undermine the constitution they just promised to defend.
Howard Schweber, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, opposes the ban on homosexual marriage and voted against the amendment, but he said he does not support including a protest against the state constitution in the oath of office.
“Consider how it would feel having a segregationist in a Southern state protesting Brown vs. the Board of Education while taking the oath of office,” said Schweber, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Or imagine any county sheriff saying: ‘Here are the laws I will enforce. Here are the ones I won’t. And here are the ones I’ll enforce in name but do everything I can to limit the effect of.’”
“This is a trashing of democracy,” said Julaine K. Appling, chief executive of the nonprofit Family Research Institute of Wisconsin. “Officeholders have to uphold the constitution. They don’t get to pick and choose.”
The City Council voted 14-4 to support the move earlier this week. Council member Jed Sanborn voted against the measure because he said it will embarrass the city, the Associated Press reported.
“People are going to roll their eyes at this, and it’s going to look like grandstanding,” he said.
The constitutional amendment to define marriage as only between one man and one woman—also prohibiting same-sex civil unions—passed last November by an large margin. Fifty-nine percent of voters supported the amendment.
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Seven Additional States Vote to Constitutionally Protect Traditional Marriage; Arizona Rejects
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110803.html
Wisconsin Bishop Says Attack on Marriage Teaching an “Intimidation” Attempt
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06102007.html