[News-releases] NOW Condemns Bush's Endorsement of Anti-Marriage Amendment

Title: [News-releases] NOW Condemns Bush's Endorsement of Anti-Marriage Amendment

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
CONTACT: JENNY THALHEIMER, 202-628-8669 ext. 116

NOW Condemns Bush's Endorsement of Anti-Marriage Amendment

February 24, 2004

"George W. Bush's endorsement today of a federal anti-marriage amendment
comes as little surprise to those of us who have been following the
president's assault on civil and human rights over the past three years,"
said NOW President Kim Gandy. "That Bush would now try to write
discrimination into the U.S. Constitution is appalling but thoroughly
predictable."

"Bush claims that this amendment will 'protect the institution of
marriage,' but he fails to explain how the legal recognition of lesbian
and gay couples threatens the bonds of heterosexual couples," noted Gandy.
"You need only look into the faces of the thousands of committed same-sex
couples who have just wed in San Francisco to see that love is universal
and that Bush's statement is a transparent effort to curry favor with
conservatives."

In defining marriage explicitly as the union of a man and a woman, the
current proposal before Congress uses vague and sweeping language that has
the potential to deny not just marriage but also civil unions and domestic
partnerships to same-sex couples.

"Our Constitution is about defining and ensuring rights and civil
liberties, not limiting them. But that won't stop Bush?he is not afraid to
go down in history as the first U.S. president to succeed in denying
fundamental constitutional rights to a select group of people," said Gandy.
"Not only is this kind of bigoted action wrong at the federal level, it is
also wrong at the state level. Right now, the Massachusetts state
legislature is attempting to reject equal rights by amending its own
constitution. Supporters of equal rights for all must not let this happen."

"NOW is calling upon the other 2004 presidential candidates,
as well as members of the House and the Senate, to publicly denounce
Bush's support of the constitutional amendment and to make clear their own
stands on whether or not the United States can continue to deny federal
marriage rights to same-sex couples," continued Gandy.

Heterosexual married couples and their families are afforded more than
1,000 legal protections and benefits in state and federal law that are
currently inaccessible to committed same-sex couples. Benefits of civil
marriage include access to health care and medical decision making for
spouses and their children; parenting rights; Social Security; taxation,
inheritance and other government benefits; as well as the simple ability
to pool resources to buy or transfer property without adverse tax
treatment.

"This amendment stems from the same narrow-minded perspective that fueled
miscegenation laws," said Gandy. "Neither race nor sex are relevant to the
right to marry. Civil rights activists eventually won the right for
interracial couples to marry in this country. And we will win marriage
rights for same-sex couples someday, too. George W. Bush and his
supporters may think they can stop progress, but they're wrong. Equality
will eventually win out over intolerance."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: JENNY THALHEIMER, 202-628-8669 ext. 116