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News Release
For Immediate Release: March 26, 2010
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355

Judge Makes Right Decision in “Same-sex Divorce”

(Harrisburg) – Today a traditional values organization commended the recent decision of Berks County Judge Scott Lash in denying the divorce of a lesbian couple who “married” in Massachusetts last June. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide group, recognizes the danger to traditional marriage in Pennsylvania if the judge had reached another decision.

“This tactic is one that the AFA of PA warned about back in 2004 when Massachusetts redefined marriage to include same-sex couples. Homosexual activists who have traveled to a state or country that permits so-called same-sex marriage will increasingly challenge their home state’s marriage laws, ” noted Diane Gramley, president of the organization.

The ultimate goal of homosexual activists is to redefine marriage in their image and they will seek an activist court to fulfill their dream. Such a fulfillment would turn into a nightmare for the majority of Pennsylvania voters who understand that marriage is only between one man and one woman. Judge Lash recognized this when he wrote in Kern v. Taney “This is a plea for social change, which plea implicitly recognizes that same-sex relationships cannot fall within the purview of a traditional marriage. If homosexuals had a fundamental right to be married to each other, this plea would be unnecessary."

Judge Lash also posed two questions: 1.) whether the right privacy bestowed on consenting adults guarantees the right to marriage and 2.) whether the fundamental right of marriage contemplates same-sex marriages.

“There have always been restrictions in marriage laws – father cannot marry daughter, brother cannot marry sister, first cousins cannot marry. These opposite sex relationships are illegal and the very concept of same-sex marriage is so unnatural that the writers of the laws did not believe it necessary to address such a relationship,” further commented Gramley.

It will be interesting to see the next legal steps taken by this lesbian who is seeking a ‘divorce’ from her partner. If she seeks an appeal rather than take Judge Lash’s advice to ask the court to have the ‘marriage’ declared void, it will expose her true agenda in forcing the redefinition of marriage in Pennsylvania.”

“It is refreshing to see a judge take the separation of powers seriously. It is not his job to redefine our marriage laws and he knows it. Additionally, he was right when he wrote that any court that takes those steps is trumping democracy by judicial fiat,” Gramley concluded.

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