Common Myths About the Marriage Amendment
Myth: “The Marriage Amendment will take away rights from gay and lesbian citizens.”
Truth: The Amendment Does Not Take Away Rights:
- Gays and Lesbians have a right to live as they choose; they don’t have a right to redefine marriage for the rest of us.
- Homosexual couples can still engage in private commitment ceremonies and engage in private adult consensual sexual conduct.
- There is no right to marry someone of the same sex, just as there is no right to marry your sister, to marry someone who is under 14 years old, or to marry more than one person.
Myth: “The Marriage Amendment will prevent businesses from continuing to offer benefits to same-sex partners.”
Truth: The Amendment Does NOT Prevent Businesses from Offering Benefits to Same-Sex Partners:
- The Amendment will not prevent businesses that offer benefits to same-sex couples from continuing to offer those benefits—including health insurance. It has no legal impact on private businesses in any way.
- Nothing in the Amendment prohibits local governments or the UNC System from offering or continuing to offer benefits to same-sex partners of employees or students, as long as they do not base it on a relationship like domestic partnerships or civil unions.
- Constitutional protections for marriage will actually help businesses, because the choice to offer same-sex partner benefits can continue to be based on the businesses’ own decision framework, instead of being mandated by government.
Myth: “The Marriage Amendment will harm recruiting efforts of businesses.”
Truth: The Amendment Will Not Hurt Business Recruitment:
- Passage of the Amendment will not keep the State from recruiting new businesses. Neither will the Amendment prevent companies in North Carolina from attracting the brightest and best workers. Companies located in states that have Constitutional Amendments defining marriage as between one man and one woman continue to attract talented workers and grow their businesses.[1] Examples of such states are Virginia, South Carolina, and Texas.
- North Carolina is consistently ranked as one of the top places in America to work, to do business, and to live.[2] Our state marriage laws have not hampered those ratings one bit, but are in fact one of the very reasons that North Carolina is ranked so highly.
- Protecting marriage will actually benefit business, because marriage produces a stable, productive, balanced workforce. Without procreation, economic growth is impossible.
Myth: “The Marriage Amendment will result in writing discrimination into the Constitution.”
Truth: The Amendment is not about discriminating against anyone. It is about preventing radical redefinition of marriage, families, and the natural process of producing and raising children within the safe, nurturing, and successful incubator of marriage.
- The real issue is whether we want to grant a government license for gay marriage. The purpose of a license is to protect society.
- Drivers’ licenses seek to protect other motorists and pedestrians from danger stemming from unqualified drivers.
- Marriage licenses protect society from familial chaos by promoting stable unions for the purpose of responsibly producing and raising healthy, successful children in the best social unit possible—one consisting of their own mother and father.
Myth: The ban on gay marriage is like the bans on interracial marriage.
Truth: Gay marriage is totally different from interracial marriage.
- Bans on interracial marriage were about keeping two races apart so that one race could oppress the other.
- Marriage is about bringing two sexes together, so that children get the love of their own mom and dad, and women don’t get stuck with the enormous disadvantages of parenting alone.
- Having a parent of two different races is just not the same as being deprived of your mother—or your father.
Myth: The Marriage Amendment is a political issue.
Truth: There is nothing political about protecting marriage. It is the right thing to do.
- Protecting marriage as the union between one man and one woman is important to preserving the family, our children, our economy, and the State as a whole.
- Whenever a legislator is given the opportunity to vote on allowing the people of North Carolina to protect marriage in the Constitution, he or she should do so without reservation.
- North Carolina voters should not tolerate politicians who play games and refuse to vote what their own consciences and their constituents endorse. A legislator who will not vote FOR the Marriage Amendment is AGAINST marriage, no matter what excuse they offer.
Myth: It would be a good compromise to allow domestic partnerships or civil unions, while recognizing that marriage is only the union of one man and one woman.
Truth: Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions are just a “stepping stone” to legalizing gay “marriage.”
- In states that have compromised by protecting marriage while leaving the issue of domestic partnerships open, bills are filed in the legislature every year to give legal status to domestic partnerships. Legislators have to deal with the issue over and over again.
- Domestic partnerships have all the rights and benefits of marriage, so eventually gay rights activists push to call it “marriage.” The compromise is used as the hammer to push for same-sex “marriage.” This has happened or is presently going on in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Vermont.
- Government endorsement and financial benefits should not be given on the basis of sexual behavior.
Myth: Gay “marriage” is inevitable, because the tide of public opinion is turning.
Truth: North Carolinians and Americans still overwhelmingly believe marriage should be defined as the union of one man and one woman.
- When asked if they agree with the statement: “I believe MARRIAGE should be defined ONLY as a union between one man and one woman,” 62% of Americans agree. [3]
- In North Carolina, most polls show around 70% of registered voters support a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.[4]
- Advocates of gay marriage should not be allowed to redefine marriage for the rest of us.
- Gay households in North Carolina number less than three percent of the population.[5]
Myth: Same-sex “marriage” doesn’t hurt me or anyone else.
Truth: Same-sex “marriage” hurts everyone.
- The people of North Carolina will lose the right to define marriage as the union of husband and wife.
- Religious groups like Catholic Charities or the Salvation Army may lose their tax exemptions, or be denied the use of parks and other public facilities, unless they endorse gay marriage.
- Small businesses like wedding florists and bed and breakfasts will be denied the right to refuse service to gay couples on religious grounds.
- All businesses may lose the right to determine whether to provide benefits to gay “spouses.”
- Public schools will teach young children that two men being intimate are just the same as a husband and wife, even when it comes to raising kids.
- Gay marriage by definition deprives children of either a mother or a father. Social science concludes that children need both a mother and a father for the healthiest outcomes.
- Gay marriage threatens social survival by severing procreation from marriage. It undermines public interest in favoring relationships required to perpetuate the race.
Myth: Divorce is a bigger threat to marriage than gay “marriage.”
Truth: Same Sex-Marriage will not reduce the number of divorces but will remove what gives marriage institutional structure.
- We should be strengthening marriage, not conducting radical social experiments on it.
- It would make sense if, and only if, homosexuals believed in saving sex for marriage and limiting sex to marriage, which is simply not the case. Monogamy among heterosexuals is 83 percent but less than 2 percent for homosexuals.[6]
- Same-sex marriage will actually increase divorce.
Myth: Homosexuals should be allowed to “marry” because they love each other.
Truth: Giving feelings priority over form and commitment will make the marriage crisis worse, not better.
- Anyone who has been married knows that marriage is based on more than the feeling of love. While love makes marriage worthwhile, it is not the basis of marriage.
- Marriage is based on long-term commitment and providing the best environment for conceiving and raising children.
- Allowing marriage based purely on feelings of love would lead to legalizing polygamy and marriage to any sort of partner—even non-human.
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