Thursday, February 12. 2004
Save the Constitution
The United States Constitution guarantees the rights of Americans. Amending the constitution has, with one famous exception, always been to expand or clarify the rights of Americans. And, with one excpection, no part of the constitution has been appealed.
Both excepctions are the same Amendment. Prohibition. An idea that seemed to have popular support at the time but clearly was wrong-headed and based upon short-term political pressure.
It appears now that the Bush Administration is going to knuckle under to the right-wing idealogues and support an Amendment to the Constitution denying equal protection under the law to same-sex couples. It's too bad that civil law had to used the emotionally-charged word 'marriage' to describe the legal binding of two people allowing shared ownership and certain specific rights of a family unit. Polls show that if the government license was for a 'civil union' or a 'life partnership' or something, and 'marriage' was exclusively the domain of religious institutions, support for any kind of denial of partnership rights to anyone would be miniscule. But we're stuck with the word 'marriage', and if nothing is done the denial of those rights will be enshrined in our most central statement of freedom.
Help stop this. Sign the petition at People for the American Way and tell the media that you support the basic rights of families.
Both excepctions are the same Amendment. Prohibition. An idea that seemed to have popular support at the time but clearly was wrong-headed and based upon short-term political pressure.
It appears now that the Bush Administration is going to knuckle under to the right-wing idealogues and support an Amendment to the Constitution denying equal protection under the law to same-sex couples. It's too bad that civil law had to used the emotionally-charged word 'marriage' to describe the legal binding of two people allowing shared ownership and certain specific rights of a family unit. Polls show that if the government license was for a 'civil union' or a 'life partnership' or something, and 'marriage' was exclusively the domain of religious institutions, support for any kind of denial of partnership rights to anyone would be miniscule. But we're stuck with the word 'marriage', and if nothing is done the denial of those rights will be enshrined in our most central statement of freedom.
Help stop this. Sign the petition at People for the American Way and tell the media that you support the basic rights of families.
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