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 marriage 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."

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