Why same-sex marriage would be bad for Illinois

October 04, 2013|By Jocelyn Floyd

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G; first comes love, then comes marriage." From childhood, our culture teaches us that marriage and love are intertwined. Why do we get married? Love. Why do we get divorced? We don't love each other anymore.

But is that all there is to it? And if so, why is the government involved in marriage at all? After all, I love my best friend, but I don't expect the government to recognize that love, endorse that love, or formalize it with a piece of paper. So what makes marriage different?

That is precisely the issue our nation is debating right now. As shown by the 2012 elections, where voter turnout on marriage questions was higher than for the presidential race, people on both sides of the political spectrum are actively engaged in this debate.

And last Friday, in a packed courtroom on the 23rd floor of the Daley Center, Cook County Circuit Judge Sophia Hall made the next statement for Illinois in this ongoing debate. Hall had the opportunity to return the debate to the people — to you, the citizens of Illinois — by granting a motion to dismiss the suit in front of her. Instead, while she dismissed certain counts, she chose to keep the suit, to keep the public policy decision of who can marry, of what marriage is, in her hands alone.

A small group of people have sued to get Illinois marriage law — which currently maintains the traditional standard of recognizing marriage as between two people of opposite sex — declared unconstitutional. The claims left in the hands of Judge Hall are, specifically, that Illinois law violates the fundamental right to marry by excluding same-sex unions and that it discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

To understand the fundamental right to marry, we must ask: What is marriage?

The answer is found in the very next line of the childhood rhyme I quoted above. "Then comes the baby in the baby carriage." Simply put, marriage is for the children. The existence of society depends on children. Without children, we have no future.

The formal institution of marriage is based on the biological fact that reproduction requires a man and a woman — and the reality that children need both a mother and a father. This institution predates government. In fact, it's one of the fundamental building blocks of human civilization. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized this and said that marriage and procreation are absolutely essential to our very existence and survival.

Marriage is society's least intrusive means to ensure the well-being of children, while respecting the liberty of citizens to form their own relationships. It encourages a cultural environment where children are born into stable families, with a mother and a father to each offer unique aspects in raising, teaching and providing for their children, to create productive adults for the next generation. This structure reduces society's financial costs and government intrusion on intimate affairs by spreading the responsibility for raising children across individual couples.

A child has the right to be raised by his mother and his father. It's unquestioned in law and society that, whenever possible, it is best for a child to be raised by his natural parents. The traditional institution of marriage supports that goal.

If we redefine marriage to move away from the societal purpose of protecting children, the only people without equal protection will be those children. Instead of protecting the children and their right to be raised by their mother and their father, more and more children will be left motherless. Or fatherless.

I agree with President Barack Obama that fathers are critical to the foundation of the family and that the epidemic of fatherless children is weakening us all. And while two parents have more resources to give their children than single parents do, same-sex parenting can never be the equivalent of a mother and a father, because all the love in the world cannot turn a man into a mother or a woman into a father.

So as we look to the question of marriage in Illinois today, we should focus on protecting and strengthening it, not undermining it. Focus on protecting children and ensuring their right to be raised by their mother and their father. And with the issue so vital to the future of our society, this question should be answered by you, the people, not in the narrow confines of a single courtroom.

Jocelyn Floyd is the special counsel for the Thomas More Society.