Debate: What Are the Best Arguments for Traditional Marriage?

Followers of the same-sex marriage issue were forced to endure another painful round of marriage debates this week, as news commentators  offered empty arguments against traditional marriage (e.g., “the State is unfairly favoring one type of love and attraction over another”) and absurd arguments favoring same-sex marriage (e.g., “one’s gay sexual tastes are analogous to being black or female”). To help erase the bad memories and fuzzy logic, here’s our own  Marriage Debate:

Q. What are the best arguments in favor of preserving and strengthening traditional marriage laws?

Before posting your answers in the comments box, consider our suggestions below–then have at it. To ensure your comments are posted, keep it clean. (There may be a brief delay while comments are being reviewed and approved.)

MarriageNewsNow! Top Ten Arguments for Strengthening Traditional Marriage Laws

1. The State has a definite interest in protecting by law the unique heterosexual union that creates, feeds, nurtures, and educates its massive citizenry from infancy to adulthood.
2. Children need a long-term stable home that marriage law helps to ensure.
3. Marriage law protects dependent spouses and children from economic destitution and poverty arising through spousal departure.
4. Families formed without marriage contracts dissolve easily and repeatedly, leading to high rates of child neglect, abuse, and juvenile delinquency.
5. Same-sex marriage threatens American democracy via judicial imposition of laws contrary to the democratically determined will of the American people.
6. Gay marriage law removes basic freedoms with regard to religious ceremonies, the right to conscientious objection, and the right of parents to determine the educational curriculum for their own children.
7. Legalization of gay marriage threatens constitutional rights of free speech under the guise of “hate speech” censorship laws.
8. All cultures of human history have recognized marriage as a unique contract between men and women oriented to the long-term project of raising of families.
9. Gay marriage defies nature’s own design; the parts don’t work that way.
10. All major religions denounce same-sex marriage as against God and nature.

Debate: How Does Gay Marriage Law Hurt Heterosexuals and their Families?

Amid news that gay marriage law is leading to the shutdown of church adoption services, a new gay sex curriculum in elementary schools, and same sex marriages in a few states, it’s time to bring back our exciting Marriage Debate.

We’ve all heard the question, “How does letting gays marry threaten heterosexuals?” The idea behind the question is that same-sex marriage has no real negative consequences.  So, let’s put the matter up to debate:

Q. How Exactly Does Gay Marriage Law Hurt Heterosexuals and Their Families?

Before weighing in with your comments, consider our suggestions below and then have at it. To ensure your comments are posted, keep it clean and focused on the arguments pro or con. (There may be a brief delay while comments are being reviewed and approved.)

MarriageNewsNow! Top Ten Ways Gay Marriage Law Hurts Heterosexuals and their Families

1. Same-sex marriage law doesn’t stipulate (or even insinuate) that adult partners are agreeing to raise children together, and therefore the same-sex marriage contract leaves heterosexual women and children without essential legal and economic protections against easy penalty-free spousal abandonment.
2. Same-sex marriage law doesn’t stipulate that adult partners must stay together for any duration of time, and therefore the same-sex marriage contract places spouses and children at grave risk of economic destitution through easy penalty-free spousal abandonment.
3. Same-sex marriage law doesn’t severely penalize a spouse who exits the contract, and thus offers no legal recourse for the spouse and children now struggling to survive without the committed help of the departing spouse.
4. Same sex marriage law creates injustice in adoption services, for gay-couple adoptions institutionalize gender discrimination against one sex and deprive children of the normative right to both a mother and a father as provided in nature.
5. Same sex marriage law legally and logically opens the door to polygamy, polyamory, polyandry, or any group of cohabiting individuals that requests “marriage” status and benefits.
6. Same sex marriage law is fundamentally unequal, unfair, and unjust, for homosexuals receive equal benefits from the state without providing to the state an equal number of new citizens and related caregiving services.
7. Same sex marriage law leads to gay sex indoctrination of  young children in taxpayer funded public schools.
8. Same sex marriage law marginalizes and stigmatizes religious groups, and removes the right of religious charities to deliver the services required by their faith communities.
9. Same sex marriage law permits self-interested spouses to leave the contract for any reason, causing grave economic harm to the socially responsible faithful spouse.
10. Once we call gay cohabitation “marriage,” we destroy marriage as a family ideal, rip down the staus of child bearing, and thwart the development of the culture of marriage which takes great effort to maintain.

Tiger Woods Cheats on His Kids, Is a Bad Person

With the Tiger Woods marriage scandal now reaching as many as ten mistresses, it’s time to call a spade a spade: Woods has cheated on his kids and is a bad person. When you screw around, you screw your kids—there’s no nice way to put it.

Betrayed and despondent, wife Elin Nordegren, the mother of Sam Alexis Woods and Charlie Axel Woods, has reportedly left the Woods home in fury and shame. The world’s top golfer has shattered his kids’ lives, and the Woods Florida mansion grows more chaotic each day. Today’s drama surrounds an unidentified woman who has left the home, this time on life support.

When a person inflicts this level of pain and suffering upon children and spouse, who cares about a golf score. With Tiger scoring on and off the course, can anyone doubt that the Nike brand will soon become associated with family betrayal, treachery, and child abuse? Gatorade thinks so and has wisely dumped Tiger.

Father Earl Woods would be ashamed of his son’s recent performance with the following ten homewreckers, as listed by Extra:

1. Cori Rist

2. Mindy Lawton

3. Jaimee Grubs

4. Rachel Uchitel

5. Kalika Moquin

6. Jamie Jungers

7. VIP Club Hostess – unnamed 26-year-old from Orlando, Fla.

8. Unnamed British TV Broadcaster

9. Unnamed Older woman

10. Holly Sampson, pornographer/prostitute

Lambert Stunt Spawns New Music Genre: Sex Artist

Fellatio at AMAs

This week Adam Lambert executed a predictable-but-sizable performance stunt in which the Idol graduate showed  himself to be more of a shock-jock-styled controversialist and less of a serious performer. Sigh.

Nevertheless, the act was part of a trend likely to spawn a new category of stage performance: the sex artist. Instead of being categorized as “rock-n-rollers,” raunch artists like Lambert–who believe the essence of a good show is public fellatio, french kissing, and other obsessive-compulsive sexual behavior–fit best in these categories: gay dancer, striptease, or even S&M artist.

The issue raises questions for critics: Should performances by Lambert, Lady Gaga, and others receive their own genre title like “sex performer” or “S&M artist”? Apple’s iTunes could perhaps have a digital downloads section to accommodate artists that specialize in uncomfortable public displays of affection. The current categories of “pop” and “rock-n-roll” simply don’t do justice to these public expression trends–they are unquestionably a different format of music.

Either way, respectable pop brands like American Idol will need to distance themselves rapidly from this new breed of sex actors. The easiest way to accomplish this is to define a new genre into which performers like Lambert can find a better descriptive fit for their immature, compulsive public sexuality.

Prejean Not Gonna Take It! Larry King Stunned

Heroes of feminism

Imagine a world in which Carrie Prejean is hailed, marriage is properly defined and defended in law, and people treat one another with basic decency and respect.  Now look at the liberal world that smears, attacks, and bullies good people and time-tested life principles. In that hellish world, liberals let loose attack lawyers and media thugs to materially destroy anyone who defends humanity’s greatest institutions, traditions, and people. Culture war is real war.

But Carrie Prejean is a warrior, and liberals fear her for a reason. When people like Prejean stand up and speak out, liberalism crumbles. It is for this reason that liberals plot daily to destroy America’s heroic conservatives by any means necessary. It’s a well funded, multi-billion dollar effort.

Yet here’s reality: so long as good people and organizations rally behind the Prejeans of our society, an entire army of anti-American thugs can’t harm her. There is strength in numbers, in coalitions, and in social networks—these provide an impenetrable shield.

So stand up for Carrie and all those like her who speak out for what’s right. United we stand!

For You, Ed

Comeback kid, Ed Swiderski, wins heart, final rose

Ed Swiderski, the 29-year-old tech from Chicago, made a stunning proposal in Monday night’s final episode of ABC’s The Bachelorette that will go down as the biggest comeback in franchise history.

Swiderski had left the program early in the season under pressure from his boss and a skyrocketing U.S. unemployment rate, but the charming, soft-spoken ex-workaholic  returned episodes later in a major gamble to win the heart of Vancouver’s proud daughter, Jillian Harris.

Fans expecting a final shoot out between two suitors were treated to a gutsy, if  slovenly, copycat return from Reid Rosenthal, the  No. 3 man whom Harris dumped in the penultimate episode. But alas, it was too little too late for the indecisive but cheerily neurotic Philadelphian real estate mogul.

The shocker of the night may have been the loss of Kiptyn, the show’s front runner and exemplary model of human DNA perfection. For all of  of his energy, charm, and levelheadedness, the Kipster couldn’t pull out a win over the down-to-earth Chicagoan. Despite a set of abs that would make a xylophone jealous, and a California lifestyle best described as “work hard play hard,” Kiptyn may have been too restrained—or disinterested—to throw caution to the wind and submit to ABC’s romantic fantasy…er, reality show. 

With enough twists and turns to give both Jillian and ABC viewers vertigo, the final episode eventually stopped spinning, and the final rose ended up in the hands of suitor Ed—which may have been a good thing after all. Like Jillian,  Swiderski expressed an ability to think of Jillian in the long term—80 years in one statement. His interest in family life and in growing old together with Harris, not to mention a robust Midwestern work ethic, have all the early makings of lifetime of commitment.

Of course, while the final ceremony ended in a beautiful engagement, the couple has now spent months back in the real world, thousands of miles apart. By this time Ed has returned to the daily work grind, and Jillian has had time to reflect on the dramatic loss of Kip and Reid.

Viewers clamoring to hear from the couple now that the ABC has closed up its  multimillion dollar Cupid Camp for another season can tune in to the post-season reunion special, “After the Final Rose.” The show airs Tuesday night at 10pm EST.

Vancouver ‘Hillbilly’ Meets Parents, Gives Ed Surprise Rose

Bachelorette Jillian - ABC Press Photo

She may have felt like “a hillbilly” while hanging out with all those aristocratic bachelor families this week, but ABC Bachelorette Jillian Harris proved her inner cultivation by welcoming back Ed from Chicago.

In a previous episode, bachelor Ed made an untimely exit from the show at the urging of his computer systems boss, who apparently couldn’t offer his star employee six weeks of “reality leave” in a troubled economy.

Ed’s surprise reappearance this week was an attempt to re-prioritize life, the Michigan native ultimately choosing a 1-in-4 chance at engagement over continued viability in his IT career.

But Ed was not the only ghost to resurface from episodes past: nice guy Jake (left of Ed) made a bold decision to come back on the show just to out the country-pickin’ Wes and his supposed girlfriend back home. The drama exposed a weakness in Jillian’s otherwise flawless judgment when the Canadian adventurer—gasp!—kept Wes for another week and showed even-keeled wine maker Jesse the door.

And with that somewhat shaky performance Jillian Harris has whittled down her pack of beaus to four (the lovable goofball Michael being too young and silly to contend seriously against the likes of Kiptyn, Ed, and even Reid).

Will this season’s Bachelorette identify a true man fit for traditional marriage? Will her focus on children and family guide her safely away from that two-timin’ guitar-strummin’ Wes? Will Jon & Kate tune in to learn what marriage is all about? Is Kiptyn still a front-runner now that Ed has traded in a Chicago career for a chance at a Canadian queen? Let us know what you think.

LGBT Pride Month Almost Over

We all know what it means to have pride in one’s work, country, family, or community or faith group. But does America fully grasp what it looks like to have pride in one’s gayness?

President Clinton was first to declare June “Gay Pride month,” but President Obama recently updated that endorsement by designating the month as LGBT Pride month. (Is it possible that heterosexuals are next in line to have a month dedicated to being heterosexual, at least for the sake of fairness and equality?)

To help Americans fully grasp what it means for our country to have gay pride as a nation, here are two parades that show what real pride is all about. This first video displays San Francisco’s pride for being gay:

This second video, shot in Berlin, shows that exhibiting pride in one’s gayness is a very Germanic thing, too.

Is Gay Marriage Law Based on a Science Fiction?

Dawson's Infamous Piltdown Man Paleontological Hoax

Writing for the The Jewish State newspaper, Arthur Goldberg and Michelle Cretella make the case that homosexuality has no known genetic links and therefore all who claim gay marriage is a “civil rights issue” are engaging in a dangerous science fiction.

The article offers expert opinion from a medical and legal perspective. Cretella is an M.D. who chairs the Sexuality Committee at the American College of Pediatricians, and Arthur Goldberg is a lawyer and executive secretary of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality.

In support of the claim that homosexuality is neither inborn or immutable, Goldberg and Cretella cite a prominent lesbian professor of developmental biology and gender studies at Brown University, Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling:

[Although the claim that homosexuality is genetic] provides a legal argument that is, at the moment, actually having some sway in court, [f]or me, it’s a very shaky place. It’s bad science and bad politics.

The authors add that “more than 100 scientific studies indicate that change of sexual orientation is possible” and highlight a 2003 study by Dr. Robert Spitzer that found “dissatisfied homosexuals are able to make substantial long-term changes in orientation.”

But aren’t homosexual couples simply looking for the same long-term marriage living as everyone else? Goldberg and Cretella cite homosexual doctors David McWhirter and Andrew Mattison who, after a conducting a study on 156 male couples with a long term commitment, discovered that the average length of monogamy for those males was “under two years.” Goldberg and Cretella find additional support for this non-monogamous-couples experience from gay activist Andrew Sullivan, who claimed that homosexuals “have a need for extramarital outlets,” and lesbian writer Camille Paglia, who said gay magazines openly promote “the bigger bang of sex with strangers” and advocate “monogamy without fidelity.”

Goldberg and Cretella go on to address the health risks of homosexuality, citing  a 1997 International Journal of Epidemiology study which found homosexual males have a life span that is eight to 20 years lower than heterosexual men. After looking at the research, the authors write:

Higher parent mortality and promiscuity increased rates of domestic violence and greater rates of divorce are not healthy for children. Consequently, acceptance of gay marriage requires a disregard for the best interests of children. It follows logically that if marriage is defined merely by “who we love” regardless of what is in the best interest of children, then the government has no right to discriminate against those with other sexual orientations including orientations toward children or animals. This is why advocates of pedophilia, group marriage, bestiality and incest cite gay marriage victories as their own. It is also no coincidence that within 10 years of legalizing same-sex marriage every Scandinavian country legalized polygamy.

The article concludes that due to the grave social and personal costs of the broken family in the U.S., Americans need to strengthen traditional marriage law, not weaken it through spurious legal fictions.

June is Fathers History Month!

It’s criminal that fathers and mothers have only a single day recognizing their vital role in producing and raising the world’s six billion citizens. To give fathers a little extra top-of-mind awareness for the hard work they do, we declare June to be “Fathers History Month” and are offering up this classic song as a tribute to dads everywhere. “Oh Daddy” – by Adrian Belew

Bachelorette Jillian ‘In It for the Right Reasons’

Bachelorette Jillian Seeking Trad Marriage (ABC Press Photo)

While Wes revealed his boozy inner user after taking truth serum, and Tanner showed off his pervy side in his undies, Bachelorette Jillian Harris demonstrated once again that she’s “in it for the right reasons.”

In this week’s episode of ABC’s Bachelorette, the fashionable Vancouverite said her goodbyes to nice guy Jake and passed up the creepy-yet-irresistible smarm of Tanner’s foot massages and “blessed package.” As always, the graceful Jillian does it with class and with an eye to finding someone truly “fit for marriage.”

During her one-on-one date with Rob—after which she throws the young 25-year-old bartender from the train, quite literally—Ms. Harris says that she’d consider him more seriously if he had five or ten more years on him, noting that she’s ready to start a family.

It’s the insistent focus on children that marks Jillian Harris as this television season’s top spokesperson for traditional marriage. Unlike clueless lost souls Jon & Kate, who apparently think marriage is a commitment for “as long as we both shall love,” Harris knows marriage is about finding a suitable partner who will say “I do” to both her and to their future children at the altar, and provide for the daily care of the tribe for life. In a word, the girl “gets it”: marriage and family are the same word.

What do you think of this season’s Bachelorette Jillian? Will she be smart enough to dump the guitar-strumming Wes as recommended by Bachelorette royalty Trista Sutter? Will she hang on to Kiptyn and never let go? Will she finally figure out the heady but lovable Reid? Watch the YouTube video preview and find out what to expect next week as Jillian’s home-town dates bring the show into the home stretch.

Is Web Smear of National Organization for Marriage Legally Actionable?

Aggressive tactics used to attack supporters of traditional marriage are shocking, but are they legal?

That’s the question many are asking with regard to high-profile hits on traditional marriage supporters by so-called “gay rights advocates.”

In a June 9, 2009 article in The Advocate (“Anti-equality Domain Linked to KKK” also [1] [2] [3]), writer William McGuinness reports that Theodore Trentman, a self-described Web activist, is conducting an Internet smear campaign against the nation’s top marriage group, The National Organization for Marriage. According to the article, Trentman purchased the Web domain nationalorganizationformarriage.com but nefariously set the URL to redirect Web surfers to KKK.com, a Ku Klux Klan site.

The Advocate states that Mr. Trentman owns approximately 16 domain names, which he uses to similarly malign various groups. Trentman is quoted as saying that he “buys names that he feels members of the gay community should own.”

But why would Trentman, a downtown lofts owner at Los Angeles-based LoftLivingLA.com, carry out underhanded Web-based attacks on the National Organization for Marriage? The Advocate reports:

Theodore Trentman, the domain’s owner and a self-described Web advocate, said it’s no accident. Trentman bought the domain name on April 8, 2009, because he said the routing brought viewers to a closer representation of the certified 501(c)(4) nonprofit.

…Trentman said his decision to associate the KKK with the NOM came down to a personal feeling that the organization was representing a philosophy similar to the Knights Party — something he felt obligated to call out. “I think the National Organization for Marriage hosts a different message than they think they do,” Trentman said. “The true message is one of hate, division, and discrimination.”

The bait-and-switch URL trick has shown up at YouTube recently, where a video falsely claiming to be from the National Organization for Marriage , and posted by user “NationForMarraige” (note the misspelling), urges viewers to visit the group’s “new website.”  (See video documenting the NOM impostor.)  In a similar way reported in The Advocate, viewers who clicked on the link prior to June 20th were routed to the KKK.com Klan site. As of June 20th, the domain name began forwarding visitors to “Kindness, Kudos, and Kourage, the New KKKs of Living” — a Trent Studios page featuring Mr. Trentman’s music video productions, including the LOGO No.1 video of 2007, “This Is Love,” by Jason and Demarco.

Information reported in The Advocate aligns with registrant data at whois.domaintools.com, which says the domain name is registered by “Theodore Trentman” of  Trent Studios in Los Angeles, California. The address listed with the domain registrar is also the address of Los Angeles firm LoftLivingLA (loftlivingla.com).

Maine Hires Calif. Proposition 8 Power Team to Help Achieve State Marriage Amendment

After becoming the fifth state to legalize gay marriage on May 6, the State of Maine has seen its citizens rally to stop the law from going into effect. It appears that the new statewide strategy to oppose the redefined marriage law will follow California’s Proposition 8, which successfully amended California’s constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman.

(Take action now! Read end of blog entry to learn how you can easily help restore traditional marriage in Maine.)

At the signing of the gay marriage legislation last May, Governor John Baldacci announced that the same-sex statue would likely be challenged, adding that the people would ultimately need to decide the final outcome. “Even as I sign this important legislation into law,” said Baldacci, “I recognize that this may not be the final word…[The Maine constitution] guarantees that the ultimate political power in the State belongs to the people.”

The people of Maine have taken many cues from California’s 2008 strategy for protecting traditional marriage, even hiring Schubert Flint Public Affairs, the powerhouse public relations firm that managed the Proposition 8 campaign and helped win 52 percent of the vote in last November’s California election. The PR firm says it will play a consulting role to Maine’s citizens who seek to preserve historic marriage and family. Polling data suggest that the majority of citizens in Maine oppose same-sex marriage.

The first step in reinstating traditional marriage has been to collect more than 55,000 signatures of registered Maine voters. This so-called “people’s veto” would put the issue on the ballot and prevent same-sex marriage from going into effect in the state. Organizer Marc Mutty, who leads the petition drive, claimed that gay activists have begun bullying citizens and have even stolen signatures from the people of Maine.

Take Action Now!

To help Maine get the required number of signatures by the August 2009 deadline, contact campaign organizers at StandForMarriageMaine.com,  the Maine Marriage Initiative, or the Maine Family Policy Council. Simply send off an e-mail to the Maine Marriage Initiative and ask how you can help. Or visit them at their Facebook page.