FRC Criticizes Court Ruling, Warns against the Roe v. Wade of Same-Sex 'Marriage'

Family Research Council (FRC) criticized today's decision by federal District Court Judge Vaughn Walker which declared that the U.S. Constitution includes a right to same-sex "marriage."

Earlier this year, FRC filed an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") legal brief in a lawsuit brought by advocates of so-called "same-sex marriage" against California's Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment adopted by California voters in 2008 which says (in full), "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." FRC will now join the fight to reverse the decision on appeal.

FRC President Tony Perkins released the following statement:

"This lawsuit, should it be upheld on appeal and in the Supreme Court, would become the 'Roe v. Wade' of same-sex 'marriage,' overturning the marriage laws of 45 states. As with abortion, the Supreme Court's involvement would only make the issue more volatile. It's time for the far Left to stop insisting that judges redefine our most fundamental social institution and using liberal courts to obtain a political goal they cannot obtain at the ballot box.

"Marriage is recognized as a public institution, rather than a purely private one, because of its role in bringing together men and women for the reproduction of the human race and keeping them together to raise the children produced by their union. The fact that homosexuals prefer not to enter into marriages as historically defined does not give them a right to change the definition of what a 'marriage' is.

"Marriage as the union between one man and one woman has been the universally-recognized understanding of marriage not only since America's founding but for millennia. To hold that the Founders created a constitutional right that none of them could even have conceived of is, quite simply, wrong.

"FRC has always fought to protect marriage in America and will continue to do so by working with our allies to appeal this dangerous decision. Even if this decision is upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals-the most liberal appeals court in America-Family Research Council is confident that we can help win this case before the U.S. Supreme Court."

Click here to download Family Research Council's amicus brief: http://www.frc.org/legalbrief/perry-v-schwarzenegger