Protecting marriage

By WND Staff

It’s a simple truth that marriage is only between a man and a woman. Webster’s Dictionary agrees. So does Nature. So does the Bible. So do the people of California who voted last year to protect marriage rights only between a man and a woman.

So why is California Gov. Gray Davis considering undermining marriage? On his desk is AB 25 by lesbian Assemblywoman Carole Migden. Cheapening marriage and overturning the people’s vote, AB 25 awards more than a dozen marriage rights to homosexual couples.

Yet no one, not even Gov. Davis, should mess with marriage. That’s why voters should urge him to veto AB 25 before the Oct. 14 deadline. Davis is rumored to have presidential aspirations. If he awards marital rights and benefits to homosexual couples, Davis will be rejecting the values of families nationwide.

The rights of marriage are worth protecting. It’s time for a fresh look at this sacred institution, because there’s undeniable evidence that, overall, marriage is very good for a person:

  • Life: Married people live longer. They’re healthier too. Single men drink twice as much as married men, and they smoke more too. Married women live longer than women who are single or divorced.

  • Happiness: Married people are nearly twice as likely as singles or cohabitating couples to say they are “very happy.” Single people are more lonely and at higher risk of depression. Couples who cohabitate before marriage are much more likely to split up later. And 86 percent of couples in unhappy marriages report being happier five years later if they stay married.

  • Wealth: Marriage plays a powerful role in both the attainment and maintenance of wealth. In 1994, a married couple in their 50s had net assets of $132,000, or $66,000 per person. But a divorced person’s assets were just $33,600. Surprisingly, a never-married person had an average net worth of only $35,000.

  • Sex: “Married sex really is better sex,” report Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher in their groundbreaking book, The Case for Marriage. “Married women are almost twice as likely as divorced or never-married women to have a sex life that (a) exists and (b) is extremely emotionally satisfying.” Truly, the best love is made on a bed of trust.

  • Children: Marriage is safer for children and their future. “The empirical literature is quite clear that children do best when they grow up in an intact, two-parent, married household,” writes Dr. Wade Horn, a clinical child psychologist and former president of the National Fatherhood Initiative.

    According to Dr. Horn, “Even after controlling for differences in income, children who live with their married parents are two times less likely to fail at school, two to three times less likely to suffer an emotional or behavioral problem requiring psychiatric treatment, perhaps as much as 20 times less likely to suffer child abuse and, as adolescents, they are less likely to get into trouble with the law, use illicit drugs, smoke cigarettes, abuse alcohol or engage in early and promiscuous sexual activity.”

  • Health: A man and a woman committed in marriage have the healthiest of all lifestyles. On average, single and divorced persons have worse health than people who are married. Tragically, the gay lifestyle is even unhealthier. The California Office of AIDS reports that a startling 79 percent of AIDS cases involve “men who have sex with men.”

    According to the American Medical Association’s report, American Adolescents: How Healthy Are They?, “homosexual youth are 23 times more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases than heterosexuals.” This is one more reason why the fidelity of man-woman marriage is the best role model for children.

The greatest attack upon marriage is coming from homosexual activists. They’re usurping the rights of marriage under the banner of “domestic partnerships” and “civil unions.” Their aim is to completely redefine what marriage is. Yet, if we discard the basic design of a male and a female in marriage, the sky’s the limit. Why limit the number of persons in the marriage? And what about the age of consent?

For all of the challenges we face in life, above all other relationships, marriage between a man and a woman remains a healthy, unique and even sacred institution for millions of Americans. Health, wealth and happiness are the real-world benefits enjoyed by the overwhelming number of people who marry. Gray Davis should resist the “domestic partners” and “civil unions” agenda. We must not allow anyone, especially the head of America’s largest state, to mess with something as good as marriage.

Visit Campaign for California Families for the Petition to Protect Marriage and the Marriage Protection flyer.

Contact Gov. Gray Davis:

State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814

Sacramento (916) 445-2841 / fax (916) 445-4633

San Diego (619) 525-4641 / fax (619) 525-4640

Los Angeles (213) 897-0322 / fax (213) 897-0319

Riverside (909) 680-6860 / fax (909) 680-6863

Fresno (559) 445-5295 / fax (559) 445-5328

San Francisco (415) 703-2218 / fax (415) 703-2803

Washington, D.C. (202) 624-5270 / fax (202) 624-5280

Randy Thomasson is the executive director of Campaign for California Families.

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