GO HERE to obtain a copy of the legislative letter. Please read it carefully to become familiar with its content. We also recommend exploring at least the home page of VMAC’s site. You may also GO HERE to obtain a PDF copy of the VMAC publication, which is a rich resource on marriage and same-sex marriage.   Print copies of the letter and personally deliver one to your Representative. Ask them to carefully consider the arguments. Tell them you will have questions for them after they’ve read it. Personal visits have the most impact.   If you can’t visit personally, print copies of the letter and mail them to your Representative and Senators in a hand addressed envelope. Write a hand written personal note on the letter (personal hand writing has more impact).     Phone your Representative and Senators and ask if they received the VMAC letter and publication. If so, have they read them?   Now ask your Representatives any of the following hard questions:   14 1/2 hours of Committee debate and testimony is not nearly enough time to fully consider the changes to marriage which the Senate has approved. That’s less time than the average family spends cooking and eating meals. By all appearances the House is just as eager to pass this bill. Please vote NO on this rush job. Our marriages, kids, and families deserve more consideration than this. Don’t you agree?   I understand gay couples’ desires for social acceptance, but replacing the institution of marriage with genderless marriage will send the message that (1) mothers and fathers are interchangeable, (2) children do not need or deserve a mother and father, and (3) those who believe otherwise are bigots. Is this what you want for Vermont? I support marriage and I am against genderless marriage. I will be watching your vote!   Civil Unions did not change marriage. Same-sex marriage will, by legally eliminating terms such as "husband" and "wife." It will almost certainly change parenting law as it did in Spain and Canada. In fact, Spain no longer legally recognizes mothers or fathers, only “Progenitor A” or “Progenitor B.” With so much in question that Vermont has not yet even considered, it would be irresponsible to vote for this.     Our current model for marriage holds, as the cultural and legal ideal, that every child should have a married mother and father. Same-sex marriage will legally and forcefully replace that model with one which resembles the tragedy of a missing biological parent. Don’t you believe mothers and fathers are both important? Why would you vote for this?   Same-sex marriage can’t provide any further tangible, legal benefits to Vermont’s gay couples. I understand gay couples’ desires for social acceptance. But there is so little to gain and so much in question regarding changes to the marriage institution: Same-sex marriage will eliminate legal concepts like “husband” and “wife,” and likely changing parentage laws. Why would you vote for this now?   Same-sex marriage would require us to legally and formally withdraw marriage’s greatest promise to the child – the promise that, as far as society can make it possible, a child will be loved and raised by the father and mother who made them.  Why would you vote for this?   Marriage is much more than a private contract between any two people; it is a social institution that provides numerous benefits to Vermont’s children and society as a whole. Wherever same-sex marriage has been tried, we see a serious decline in marriage and an increase in single parenthood. Don’t you think you owe your constituents and Vermont the benefits of looking into this before making a decision about gay marriage?      No real civil rights or true “equality” come at the expense of any other human being.  Since same-sex marriage can only come at the expense of the bonding right of the child to both a mother and a father, it should be obvious that same-sex marriage is NOT a civil right.  Why would you vote for this?   A primary goal for public policy should be to create the most favorable conditions to increase the number of children raised by their own married mother and father.  This goal is shared by the vast majority of sociologists today. But same-sex marriage works against this goal.  Is that really what you want?   Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts ushered in a large increase in artificial insemination among New England gays, resulting in more children being deliberately raised in a manner such that they can never know their father.  Is that really what you want for Vermont too?

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