[
Judge Terence Kern:Homosexual activist Judge]
Obama enabler: http://sharlaslabyrinth.blogspot.com/2014/02/congressthe-house-and-senate-are.html
oped: All I have to say about this: http://sharlaslabyrinth.blogspot.com/2014/02/enough-already-of-this-gay-lovemarriage.html
By KRISTI EATON
11 hours ago
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) —
Lawyers who are appealing a federal judge's ruling that overturned
Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage said in a court filing Monday that
legalizing gay marriage would harm children, undermine society and make
traditional marriages unstable.
The Alliance
Defending Freedom cited courts and anthropologists, saying children are
better off in a home with a mother and a father. It said traditional
couples would be less likely to marry, or stay together, if marriage
became a genderless institution not focused on procreation.
U.S.
District Judge Terence Kern ruled last month against Tulsa County Court
Clerk Sally Howe Smith, whose office refused to grant a marriage
license to two women who wanted to marry. Monday's appeal is the first
step in the process ahead of an April 17 hearing before the 10th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Denver.
In its court filing Monday, Alliance said marriages should be about children, not adults.
"Marriage
encourages mothers and fathers to remain together and care for the
children born of their union," the group's 93-page filing said. Severing
the link, it said, "would powerfully convey that marriage exists to
advance adult desires rather than serving children's needs."
Citing
a court opinion from 1888 — 19 years before Oklahoma's statehood —
Alliance said marriage "is the foundation of the family and of society,
without which there would be neither civilization nor progress," and
cited a 1978 ruling that said traditional marriage was "fundamental to
the very existence and survival of the (human) race."
Sharon
Baldwin and Mary Bishop, who had applied for the marriage license,
issued a statement Monday night saying Alliance's brief relies "on
outdated and debunked science as far as saying that children need both a
mother and a father."
"(W)e
believe they're wrong that marriage is only about children. While many
couples who wish to marry, both heterosexual and homosexual, want
children, many others are infertile, are elderly or simply do not want
children," they said.
In his ruling, Kern said
Oklahoma, by enforcing the ban, violates the U.S. Constitution's Equal
Protection Clause because it precludes same-sex couples from receiving
an Oklahoma marriage license.
"Exclusion
of just one class of citizens from receiving a marriage license based
upon the perceived 'threat' they pose to the marital institution is, at
bottom, an arbitrary exclusion based upon the majority's disapproval of
the defined class," he wrote. "It is also insulting to same-sex couples,
who are human beings capable of forming loving, committed, enduring
relationships."
Oklahoma's
Republican governor, attorney general and other elected officials
blasted the ruling. Kern immediately stayed the effects of his ruling,
anticipating an appeal.
Alliance's
brief Monday said that, over time, marriage would lose its distinction
as the place where heterosexual couples traditionally have children and
instead be regarded as merely an option.
"Without
the stability that marriage provides, more man-woman couples would end
their relationships before their children are grown ... and more
children would be raised outside a stable family unit led by their
married mother and father," the group wrote, predicting an increase in
the divorce rate.
Byron Babione, senior counsel for
Alliance Defending Freedom, said 76 percent of Oklahoma voters
expressed what they thought was best for children and society, referring
to the amendment vote.
"Marriage
expresses the reality that men and women bring distinct, irreplaceable
gifts to family life, especially for children who deserve both a mom and
a dad," Babione said in a statement Monday night.
Kern's ruling was one of several in the past few months to strike down or void part of such a ban.
A
similar appeal out of Utah is being heard by the 10th Circuit. Utah
state attorneys filed their opening arguments earlier this month, saying
the optimal environment for raising a child is with a mother and
father. A federal judge there had ruled in December that the
voter-approved ban was unconstitutional. More than 1,000 gay couples got
married in Utah before the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay in the
case, halting the marriages during the appeals process. Oral arguments
in the Utah case are scheduled for April 10.
___
Follow Kristi Eaton on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kristieaton .
by: Paula Priesse
