OPPOSITION TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE GROWS…

News

In America, the fightback for real marriage is gaining momentum.

Last month, lawmakers in nine states launched efforts to affirm and restore man-woman marriage.

In Idaho, the state House of Representatives passed a resolution (by 46 votes to 24) calling on the US Supreme Court to “restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman”. North Dakota’s House passed a similar measure (by 52 votes to 40), while in Michigan a resolution on these lines was introduced by State Representative Josh Schriver, though didn’t pass on this occasion. Such resolutions effectively ask the nine Justices to reverse the 2015 ruling legalising same-sex marriage across the country.

Meanwhile, bills introduced in Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas seek to restore the special status of man-woman unions via a new concept of “covenant marriage”, only available to heterosexual couples.

In Oklahoma, one lawmaker sought to incentivise having children within marriage by proposing a child tax credit, only available to male-female couples with children conceived during the marriage.

At a press conference, Michigan’s Josh Schriver said the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision had “defaced the definition of marriage… and confused the American family structure”. Same-sex marriage deprives children of the “fundamental right to be born and raised by a mother and father”, he said.

Two Supreme Court Justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, have previously indicated a willingness to reverse the Court’s controversial same-sex marriage ruling, though the court has so far avoided returning to the issue.

Currently, 33 of America’s 50 states have constitutional amendments or laws that would, if the Supreme Court reversed its ruling, immediately prohibit same-sex marriage in those states. However, a 2022 federal statute would require all states and the federal government to recognise the marriages conducted in the 17 states that have laws guaranteeing same-sex marriage.

Recent polling highlights this shift, revealing a noticeable decline in public support for same-sex marriage in the US, now at just 51%, down from its peak of 59% in 2021.

Too often, it can feel like the tide of history is against real marriage as Western culture turns its back on traditional family values. But this is an illusion created by the media-promoted peculiarities of our cultural moment. In fact, the truth about marriage cannot be erased by politicians and judges. Underneath their novel definitions, the reality of marriage remains solid and shines out brightly.

At C4M we’re encouraged by these American state initiatives. They remind us that history doesn’t only flow in one direction, and that in time the full benefits of real marriage will be restored to our societies once again.