Gay marriage ban unncessary, leader says

A Constitutional Amendment to ban gay and lesbian marriage was compared today with amendments prohibiting pregnant pigs and creating high-speed rail.

Patricia Ireland, former president of the National Organization for Women, told  Tallahassee’s Capital Tiger Bay Club that the amendment is yet another example of something that should not be in the Florida Constitution.

"There are more important things that belong in our Constitution,'' Ireland said, noting that passage of the amendment would result in dozens of lawsuits against governmental agencies that now provide benefits for unmarried Floridians.

Orlando lawyer John Stemberger said the amendment is needed to protect marriage from the possibility of future court decisions that might recognize gay marriages. The amendment would put existing law into the state Constitution and guard against polygamy and group marriage, he insisted.

"Children need a mom and a dad,'' Stemberger insisted. "The research is clear. Where ever a mother and father are president social maladies are lower and children are happier and more successful.''

Ireland said the amendment would disrupt the lives of more than 269,000 unmarried Floridians who live together and benefit from legal benefits and rights. She estimated that only 41,000 of them are actually gay and lesbian couples.

A straw poll taken by those attending the lunch saw Tiger Bay members voting four to one against the proposed Constitutional Amendment.

-- Lucy Morgan, Times staff writer

Comments

my opinon of the "savemarriage" crowd is this:

either they are seriously unsure of their sexual orientation and are afraid that their inate gayness will be outed as people become more and more comfortable with gay people, realizing they are NO threat, save to the deeply closeted -- "savemarriage" crowd!

kinda like rev. ted out in colorado, making $$$$ gay bashing and then being serviced by a man, himself!

or, they have really strong feelings which are suppressed. theyd love to have a m/m or f/f encounter, but are afraid and embarrassed.

consequently, they want to punish others for THEIR OWN urges, self-deception and self-loathing!!

kinda like the white supremacists who are eventually discovered to be either jewish or of mixed racial heritage.

they are to be pitied for their social/sexual incompleteness and inability to handle it.

my parents divorced when I was 4.

I am perfectly well adjusted and highly successful.

Spermburger is an ignorant fool, though I never thought I'd find myself gareeing with Ireland either

You people don't like democracy, do you? The Gay Marriage Ban will be approved by the people of Florida, like it has in every other state that its been on the ballot.

seems to me, 4.21, that folks living next door to the camps kinda ignored the ashes and bad smells, too, didnt they? not to mention the millions going in and NEVER coming out

just doing the "peoples' will", right?

"we knew nothing"

majorities dont determine what is RIGHT and JUST, do they?

[gitar chris]

Stemberger is drumming up business

4:21

LOL at the states where it's passed. Most are in the lower half of the median income.

Can you say "ignorant hillbilly"?

sternberger said that "children need a mother and a father"

He is assuming that marriage is done to have children...

Then under that line of reasoning, people over the age of 40 and all sterile adults should not be allowed to get married.

I have yet to hear a legitimate argument against gay marriage. YET!!!!

arent these the same folks who -- fifty years or so ago -- were against "interracial marriages"?

i think they just hung their sheets in the closet...pun intended!!

face it, they are either self-loathing homersectionals, afraid to come out or they desperately want a m/m or f/f experience but cant deal with the guilt.

primarily

hey 4:21 - it did NOT pass everywhere. Arizona defeated it. And, since it needs 60% to pass here, so will Florida.

It will pass with 73%.

If it does not pass, the definition of marriage will be changed and become meaningless.

The institution of marriage is actually strengthened when it is big enough and important enough to used by all loving and committed couples. This shrill amendment does nothing to "defend" marriage.

Even convicts in prison have the right to marry.

This is not such a cut and dry issue that is just about ones sexual urges and parents for children.

There is an undercurrent of concern about radical gay activists bringing to other states what they have done in California, Maryland and Massachusets.

For example in California the homosexual lobby have succeeded in having references to Mom & Dad abolished in public schools because they believe it represents a discriminatory bias.

In Maryland a large Metro D.C. county has passed a sexual preference policy for using public restrooms. I will not apologize for not wanting an adult man going into the same restroom as my 12 year old daughter regardless of how gay he may claim to be nor do I want an adult gay woman going into the same restroom as my 8 year old son.

The overwhelming majority of people in this nation do not subscribe to hatred of or mistreatment of anyone regardless of sexual orientation but this does not mean that they seek to be subjected to social behavior that is unacceptable for a variety of reasons.

Radical homosexual activists have created the environment that leads to the type of reaction which promotes agendas such as a Constitutional Amendment on the issue of homosexual marriage.

[Charlotte]

Here in Massachusetts where gay marriage is the law nothing has changed except gay & heterosexual couples have equal rights. Marriage is a basic civil right that should be attainable by all Americans if they choose. For the truth about gay marriage check out our trailer. Produced to educate & defuse the controversy it has a way of opening closed minds & provides some sanity on the issue: www.OUTTAKEonline.com

Gay marriage is already illegal and will remain as such even after this amendment is defeated.

How do you "protect" marriage by keeping people from hetting married at all?

the research eh stemberger? well just because you got an armload of research does not mean it needs to go in THE CONSTITUTION

People who fight soooo hard against "gays" are just afraid of the "gay" in themselves. Eh Stemberger?

How to "protect" marriage: discourage adultery, spousal abuse, child abuse. THOSE things are the ones that weaken marriage.

7:40 - why not fight those things and unacceptable behavior that you are worried about rather than to vote for a far reaching amendment? That argument holds no water and has nothing to do with marriage rights.

There isn't anything more important to our future than defining which "men are created equal" in the eyes of our Constitution. The great thing about the checks and balances in our great nation is that there will always be a way to seek recourse.

This referendum is akin to hate speech and has no place in our great nation.