Assemblyman Pete Knight represents the 36th Assembly District,
covering California’s high desert region.
By Pete Knight
California’s long-standing policy against same-sex marriage
should not be undermined by a few judges in another state.
Throughout our nation’s history, every court of law and every state
legislature has defined marriage as a civil contract between a man
and a woman. California even enacted a special law just 19 years
ago to reaffirm that same-sex couples could not receive a marriage
license in our state.
But a few judges in Hawaii courts are threatening to legalize
same-sex "marriage" in a way that would allow same-sex couples to
circumvent California law by getting a valid marriage in Hawaii for
which they can demand legal recognition in California. To protect
our own policy of heterosexual marriage, we need to enact
legislation that would prevent these couples from subverting
California law.
Unless we enact a ban, same-sex marriage would be legalized
against the will of the people.
Every single survey of public opinion shows that marriage should
not be re-defined to apply to same-sex unions.
Even though most Americans may favor anti-discrimination laws
relating to employment, housing and so on, society clearly sees
government recognition of same-sex "marriage" as going too far.
The reality is that any bill, proposition, or other measure
aimed at legalizing same-sex marriage would have no chance of
passing.
However, by doing nothing, California’s century-old law that
automatically recognizes all out-of-state marriages will come back
to haunt us when Hawaii begins issuing same-sex "marriage"
licenses.
The consequence of failing to legislate a ban, therefore, would
be to hamstring Californians with the legal chaos of same-sex
marriage without having had any say in the matter.
We need to strengthen, not weaken, the institution of
marriage.
It is true that the modern institution of marriage is under
attack, threatened by high divorce rates ad the deterioration of
the family unit. Attempting to redefine marriage to include any two
(or more) persons of any mix of genders has the effect of
undermining the importance of marriage by lifting up to its level
these other relationships.
We should focus on restoring the values of traditional marriage
before we scrap them altogether by embracing same-sex
marriages.