Once again the Catholic Church has raised its voice in opposition to same-sex marriage. Speaking from the pulpit on Jan. 11, Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley called upon 'our Catholic lawyers and jurists to live your baptismal commitment' and oppose such unions.
'The prevalence of divorce and cohabitation in the last decades has done great harm to the institution of marriage, by taking the focus off children,' he said. 'Same-sex marriage will only further the tendency to only see marriage as being for the good of the adult without taking into account the children and their interests.'
After the service, at a luncheon sponsored by the Catholic Lawyers' Guild, Robert Bork lambasted the judicial tyranny of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in deciding the gay marriage case. He said the majority decision was based on 'arguments that did not rise above the quality of a late-night philosophy session in a dormitory.'
Bork was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan but was rejected by the Senate as too ideological.
Neither set of comments surprised Margaret Williams, interim executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the group that brought the case. 'This is not about the Catholic Church,' she told the Boston Globe, 'It's about the rights and freedoms under the Massachusetts Constitution ... . The separation of church and state should be very clear.'
Earlier in the week, on Jan. 7, the right wing Coalition for Marriage released poll results claiming 'nearly seven in ten Massachusetts residents want to vote on whether the state should issue marriage licenses to gay couples.' The respected firm Zogby International conducted the poll.
But their spin turned to humiliation the next day when it became known that the Coalition had released only part of the survey results and had grossly misrepresented the total picture.
'I want to apologize,' Coalition spokesman Ronald A. Crews told the Globe. 'I misspoke. I misspoke primarily out of ignorance.' The Coalition quickly released results from the remaining 13 questions on the 20-question survey.
The key question: 'Marriage is such an important institution that it should be defined in our constitution as the union of a man and a woman,' found 48% agreeing and 49% disagreeing with the statement. That is consistent with earlier polls that had found Massachusetts voters fairly evenly divided on the subject.
Perhaps most importantly, the Zogby poll found that only 5% of likely voters feel that gay marriage is the most important issue facing the state. Jobs, the economy, healthcare, and education all ranked far higher.
The Denver Post pressed Vice President Dick Cheney on his views on gay marriage and the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) that would ban it, in an interview published on Jan. 9.
Cheney reiterated the view that he expressed during the 2000 campaign, that such relationships ought to be legally recognized; that states were the proper venue to make those decisions; and that they may choose varying approaches.
He pledged political loyalty to George Bush with regard to federal aspects of marriage. 'The President is going to have to make a decision in terms of what administration policy is on this particular provision and I will support whatever decision he makes.'
Cheney declined to discuss what advice he has offered the President on this or any other issue. His daughter Mary is a lesbian in a long-term relationship who also heads up the vice presidential reelection effort.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in partnership with other organizations, has launched a $350,000 print and radio campaign opposing the FMA.
It quotes conservative opponents to the amendment, such as former Republican Rep. Bob Barr, former Sen. Alan Simpson, and columnist George F. Will. And it closes with the tag line 'Real conservatives agree: be conservative with the Constitution—don't amend it.'
The campaign urges Americans to contact their members of Congress expressing that view.
