May 17, 2004
For Immediate Release
Contact:

Maryam Kubasek
Director of Communications
513/521-6227, ext. 111 or 513/515-7700 cell

Cincinnati—As of today, the state of Massachusetts joins the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada’s three most populous provinces as the only places worldwide where homosexuals can marry.

“Many Americans are understandably outraged by what they believe is judicial tyranny as well as moral anarchy,” noted Rick Schatz, president and CEO of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families. “The National Coalition supports the efforts of President Bush and leaders on Capitol Hill who stand for the sanctity of marriage by calling for a Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  The FMA is the only solution that will protect and preserve the desire of 41 states that have made the effort to clarify that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”

The National Coalition supports a FMA because we must affirm that marriage is not a right, it is a responsibility; a responsibility rooted in the procreative potential of men and women who engage in marital acts because society has a compelling interest in the manner and place into which children come into being.

The National Coalition supports the institution of marriage, the relationship and importance that both a father and a mother play in the development and rearing of children and the unique benefits to the community as a whole found only in the union of a man and a woman.

“The evidence from other nations who have taken a similar path in recognizing same-sex marriages is clear that the institution of marriage is utterly decimated and the institution of the family is irrevocably harmed,” said Dan Panetti, vice president for legal and public policy of the National Coalition.