News Release
For Immediate Release:  March 17, 2011
Contact:   Diane Gramley  1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355

It’s Not About Respect, It’s About Redefinition

(Harrisburg)  —  Yesterday in both the US House and US Senate the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act” was introduced.  Its purpose is to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide defender of traditional marriage, notes the oxymoronic title to the bill and warns those 21 federal legislators which represent Pennsylvanians in Washington, DC to have no part of it.

“In the Senate the bill was introduced by the usual suspects – Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein and one of homosexual activists’ latest crusaders Kirsten Gillibrand from New York.  In the House it was introduced by four homosexual members of Congress.  Apparently the destruction of the building block of our nation – marriage — is a more pressing issue than the economy, the jobless rate, or a deficit that is spiraling out of control,” Diane Gramley, President of the AFA of PA noted.

Without protection from the federal DOMA the thirty-one states which have Marriage Protection Amendments would be forced to recognize so-called same-sex marriage performed in the small handful of states which permit homosexual marriage.  This would lead to a firestorm of challenges to those states’ DOMAs.  President Obama opened the door for the introduction of these bills when he announced last month that his Department of Justice would no longer defend DOMA in a court of law.

The effort by homosexual activists to redefine marriage and family is all about the whims and selfishness of a group of adults who apparently is not concerned about the consequences on the children of our nation.  They are the ones who will really pay the debt if America succumbs to this effort to redefine normal.

Studies have shown children do best when raised by their married biological parents:

  • Among children raised by same-sex couples, the (2005) report notes a significant increase in low self-esteem, stress, confusion regarding sexual identity, an increase in mental illness, drug use, promiscuity, STD’s, and homosexual behaviour, amongst others.
  • Furthermore, the report shows that statistics have brought to light the fact that same-sex relationships betray a much higher instance of separation and break-up than heterosexual relationships, increasing the likelihood that the child will experience familial instability.
  • A new study of domestic violence suggests that homosexual relations are far less pacific than activists are willing to acknowledge. …Among the same-sex couples surveyed, a remarkable 56% reported that ‘they had experienced one or more … forms of domestic violence.’   (“Homosexual Harmony?” New Research, April 2005, an abstract of Stephen S. Owen and Tod W. Burke, “An Exploration of the Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Same-Sex Relationships,” Psychological Reports 95 [2004]: 129-132.)
  • In February 2008 Swedish researchers released a massive study – covering 22,300 individual sets of data, gathered from 1987 to 2007 – which found that active father figures play a huge role “in reducing behavior problems in boys and psychological problems in young women.”

“Those sponsoring these bills to overturn DOMA are not showing respect for marriage, but are rather seeking to redefine it.  They are seeking to destroy marriage and family, to force the rest of the nation to embrace homosexuality as normal and ignore the negative ramifications that have already impacted children raised in these alternative households.  The children will continue paying unless America gets her house in order,” Gramley concluded.

# # #

Print Friendly, PDF & Email