Democracy Has Prevailed.

March 31, 2008

Maria's "Blog for Equality Day" Post

The subject of the "equality" of this day is an attempt to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to define marriage as solely between one man and one woman as part of a "Marriage Protection Amendment."

First, let's throw out any straw man arguments: we are talking about the legal institution of marriage. We are not speaking about any particular religion's take on the subject -- they are free to define marriage exactly as they want.

What we are talking about is a legal contract between two adults. A contract that, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, confers over 1,000 protections and benefits to couples who enter into it. A contract that is currently only available to heterosexual couples. This despite the fact that there are already thousands of families in Pennsylvania headed by gays and that society has determined that encouraging stabile, monogamous relationships is healthy for children in these and all families.

Moreover, this proposed amendment could possibly remove existing legal protections for committed long-term couples and their children and would prohibit civil unions by heterosexual couples.

So, what exactly is being "protected" here?

No one has ever been able to adequately explain how allowing gays to marry weakens hetero marriages.

The only thing that this amendment does is "protect" gays from having the same rights, benefits, privileges and protections as heteros and "protect" children with gay parents from having the same security that children have whose parents are straight.

It "protects" and enshrines inequality and therefore must be protested.

Equality Advocates Pennsylvania asks that you do the following to register your disagreement with this amendment:

  • Click HERE to e-mail your State Senator!

  • Click HERE for more information on setting up a meeting with your Senator!

  • Email Jake at jkaskey@equalitypa.org to help out!

  • It's a good start.
    .

    6 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    E-mailed my senator,Offered help to Jake. Thank you for the opportunity. I see kids every day struggling to feel Human, much less equal.

    Anonymous said...

    Dear Friends.

    Feel free to read the amendments contained in the Bill of Rights in Honor of Blog For Equality Day. http://www.constitutionfacts.com/index.cfm

    Here are a few of my favorites.

    Amendment I: Freedom of religion, speech, and the press; rights of assembly and petition
    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

    Amendment IX: Rights retained by the people
    The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people

    (means States can't infringe upon your rights either)
    Some jurists have asserted that the Ninth Amendment is relevant to interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Arthur Goldberg (joined by Chief Justice Warren and Justice Brennan) expressed this view in a concurring opinion in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965):

    [T]he Framers did not intend that the first eight amendments be construed to exhaust the basic and fundamental rights.... I do not mean to imply that the .... Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of rights protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government....While the Ninth Amendment - and indeed the entire Bill of Rights - originally concerned restrictions upon federal power, the subsequently enacted Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the States as well from abridging fundamental personal liberties. And, the Ninth Amendment, in indicating that not all such liberties are specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments, is surely relevant in showing the existence of other fundamental personal rights, now protected from state, as well as federal, infringement.


    Amendment XIV: Civil rights
    The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed on June 13, 1866 and ratified on July 9, 1868.

    Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
    Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

    Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

    Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
    Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

    Amendment XIII: Abolition of slavery
    The Thirteenth Amendment was proposed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865.

    Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

    Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.


    Amendment XIX: Woman suffrage
    The Nineteenth Amendment was proposed on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18,1920.

    The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

    Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

    Perhaps, someday, we can all enjoy their mighty benefit.
    Happy Blog for Equality Day! Here are a few of my favorites.

    Peace,
    Douglas Shields
    President, Pittsburgh City Council

    Anonymous said...

    John K. says: Once again I am on the floor here laughing. Since when does Doug Shields apply the rule that all are equal under the law. If that were even close to what this lefty believes then he would immediately submit a proposal to ammend the Pittsburgh City Charter so that his stated belief in equality applies to the Pittsburgh Tax Code. LOL LOL Shields you are amusing.

    Anonymous said...

    John K. also says: Shields believes all are equal under the law except for liberals, they are more equal.

    Anonymous said...

    John K. also says: And if you think Shields is amusing, just look at me waving my pee-pee! Lookie! Amusing!

    Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

    Couple in love persecuted

    They are consenting adults (39 and 61) who can’t understand why people won’t just leave them alone to enjoy their life as a normal family. They are even barred from marriage due to teh hypocrisy!!1!1!

    When will we stop this hating? This prudish bigotry?