At any given time in history, there are pivotal cultural issues that come before a people and their leaders which warrant real study, and careful deliberation. Same-sex marriage is just such an issue.

Despite the magnitude of changing the definition of marriage, the Vermont legislature has acted as if they were deliberating on something as trivial as the importance of flossing teeth, or the proper inflation of vehicle tires.

The Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee spent only 14 1/2 hours in testimony and debate before eagerly rushing senate bill S.115 out to the Senate floor for a vote. That’s about the same amount of time the average family spends cooking and eating meals for one week.

In the legislature’s haste to enact same-sex marriage, there are many aspects to this legislation which have not been properly evaluated. Of particular concern is the issue of parental rights as they pertain to school activities which will promote same-sex marriage as completely equal to man/woman marriage. We strongly suggest viewing the video interview with the Parker family of Massachusetts, who found themselves on the wrong side of the law simply by objecting to their five year old child being subjected to “diversity” training in kindergarten. The Parkers spent $200,000 in legal costs to defend themselves and their rights, as parents, to teach their own children about the role of same-sex marriage in society. 

Many legislators believe that changing civil unions to marriage is no big deal...BUT IT IS. 

Civil unions did not change marriage, but same-sex marriage WILL in many ways.

VT bill H-178 will profoundly change Vermont’s marriage laws. If it passes, Vermont will be legally declaring that:

• Men and women are completely interchangeable
• Vermont no longer seeks to ensure that every child has a mother and a father through marriage
• Those who believe that this is unwise are bigots

Same-Sex Marriage No Big Deal?

Ask the Parkers

Vermont Marriage Advisory Council

Take It To The People

VMAC Publication

House Bill H-178

Senate Bill S-115

Find Your Vermont Legislators

Vermont Newspapers

An Analysis of same-sex marriage bill

Summary talking points

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Same-sex marriage: A benefit/risk analysis

Alleged Benefits

Real Risks...

 Same-sex marriage in Vermont can offer only one benefit to Vermont’s gay population: Hopes of increased social acceptance (but even this cannot be guaranteed by law). All legal experts agree that civil unions already provide every legal benefit and protection VT can give. 

Gay legal advocate and Vermont Law School Professor Greg Johnson admitted this when questioned by a legislatively appointed commission:

“I’m an openly gay scholar, I’m a gay rights advocate, I support opening up marriage to same sex couples.  Yet my answer to your first question is that marriage licenses would deliver no more rights than a civil union license.  Legally, civil union is exactly the same, and completely equal to marriage.” [emphasis added]

Only Federal same-sex marriage could provide the legal benefits Vermont gays seek; a reality made virtually impossible by thirty state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. 

Please take the time to explore the VMAC website for more thorough explanations of these issues. In particular, we recommend:

• VMAC’s 2008 summary publication
• The informational letter sent from VMAC to all Vermont’s legislators.
• The FAQ
• The Video Library, which contains several lectures by nationally renowned experts on marriage and family.

 Civil unions did not change marriage, but Same-sex marriage will: it will legally remake marriage to resemble the tragedy of a missing biological parent. Our current model for marriage holds, as the cultural goal and legal ideal, that every child should have a married mother and father - an ideal that will legally vanish with same-sex marriage.

By shifting the definition from one man/one woman to the union of any two people, it will revoke the legal promise and human right inherent in man/woman marriage: the promise that every child will know and be raised by their mother and father who made them. This is a primary reason why France and Ireland said NO to same-sex marriage.

 Same-sex marriage will neuter all laws which affect marriage and family relationships (see text of bill H-178). The gender meaning of terms like husband, wife, bride, groom, father, mother, widow, widower, etc, will be removed from all Vermont law.

 Parentage laws must change. Companion bill H-181 would sever the connection between biology and parentage, encouraging more “alternative” family structures like same-sex parented families created by artificial insemination and gestational hosts. As with Canada, Vermont is about to legally eliminate natural parenthood, and replace it with “legal” parenthood: defined and controlled by the state.

 It will legally destroy the ancient and inherent connection between marriage and children by reducing marriage to a simple contract between any two adults. This is exactly why cultures which favor same-sex unions show the lowest actual support for marriage as a whole.

 Many legal scholars note that religious liberties will be severely impacted despite the clergy exception found in the same-sex marriage bill. (non partisan report from Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty).

 Same-sex marriage will mandate that schools teach children that the union of two men, or two women is completely equal to the marriage of a man and a woman, that there is no difference between these three distinct family types, and that dissent is bigotry. This has already occurred in Massachusetts, where a father of a five year old kindergartner was jailed for objecting to blatant indoctrination of his child, incurring $200,000 in legal costs to defend his parental rights. Go HERE for a video interview with the Parker family.

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