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Quotes Against FMA
Americans Speak Out
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Americans Speak Out Against the FMA
As President Bush announced his support for the discriminatory Federal Marriage Amendment, a group of hard-working Americans were at the Capitol making their opposition to the proposed amendment known. Almost a quarter of a million Vote No! postcards were delivered to Capitol Hill as part of the event.
- Read the statements
- LaWana SlackMayfield
North Carolina - The Rev. Susan Russell
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., and a member of the Human Rights Campaign Religion and Faith Council - Joann and Joe Elder
Wisconsin
- LaWana SlackMayfield
- View photos from the event
- Read the press release
View video of press conference
at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
LaWana SlackMayfield
North Carolina
Hello. My name is LaWana SlackMayfield and I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. I took time off of work today because I am fed up with what’s going on in Washington and want to send a message.
I may not agree with my family on all issues, but we do agree — the use of an issue to divide and distract voters is one of the worst moves a politician can make.
The way I see it, that’s exactly what’s happening today. President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Frist have terrible poll numbers, a mess in Iraq and gas prices nobody can afford.
With no real solutions and an election ahead, they’re in trouble. So they find an issue they think their political base will be excited about, the Federal Marriage Amendment.
As a working woman and a woman of color, I believe there are many more important issues:
- Gas price are ridiculous.
- Over 100,000 people are unemployed.
- Senior citizens are having to choose between their medication and groceries.
- Social Security is in the tank.
I have been working since I was about 13 years old, and I’m here to tell you that what affects American families are the basics —
- A steady paycheck
- Health insurance
- Good schools and a future for our children.
Why isn’t Congress talking about issues that matter? This is a smokescreen, that’s why.
It’s shameful. President Bush’s policies have devastated my community, and I’m here to tell him this amendment is no solution.
In fact, for the first time in history, this amendment would actually add discrimination into the document that over time has come to be the very thing that protects us all.
I think we can all agree, no matter how we feel about gay marriage, the Constitution should be used to protect people and ensure freedoms, not deny them.
And if you open the door to putting discrimination against gay people in the Constitution, what’s to say we won’t discriminate against another group down the line. Who will be next? Women? African Americans?
This amendment is a cynical political ploy. And we won’t be bamboozled or lose focus on what’s truly important. Great leaders like the late Coretta Scott King and Congressman John Lewis called this amendment discriminatory.
In 2004, the late Mrs. King said, “Instead of trivializing the Constitution, we need some laws that give families the kind of help they really need, like job-training and child care assistance, stronger schools and health insurance coverage for every family.”
Congressman Lewis said, “I have fought too long and too hard against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on same-sex marriages.”
President Bush and Senator Frist should be ashamed. But at the end of the day, we all have to fill our tanks with the same gas. So let’s put aside the smokescreen and get to work on the issues that affect real Americans. Thank you.
The Rev. Susan Russell
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., and a member of the Human Rights Campaign Religion and Faith Council
I am the Reverend Susan Russell, an Episcopal priest and pastor from All Saints Church in Pasadena, California. I am here today representing people of faith who oppose writing discrimination into the Constitution in the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment.
As an Episcopalian I have taken vows to respect the dignity of every human being and as an American citizen I have pledged allegiance to a flag guaranteeing liberty and justice for all. The Federal Marriage Amendment violates both of those principles and so I believe it is imperative that people of faith opposed to legislating inequity step up and make their voices heard in this critical debate.
We have heard a lot about Christian moral values in the marriage debate and as the pastor on the podium I want to say that moral values are of deep concern to me. I am deeply concerned by the shocking lack of moral leadership offered by those who would focus the energy, resources and attention of this Congress on writing discrimination into the Constitution while the war in Iraq continues, the Gulf Coast reels from Katrina’s after effects, the AIDS pandemic worsens in Africa and genocide continues in Darfur.
These are the moral issues my congregation wants Congress to be considering – not a Federal Marriage Amendment which is clearly a political move to bolster sinking poll numbers.
My son is serving in the U.S. Army on active duty. Last October I sat in the bleachers in Columbia, South Carolina as he graduated from boot camp and heard all those brave, young soldiers swear to "defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic."
It never occurred to me that a few months later I myself would be on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to defending the Constitution from those willing to exploit it for political gain. My son and his colleagues preparing to be deployed to Kuwait deserve better than that. America deserves better than that.
My name is Joann Elder. I came here today with my husband of 55 years, Joe. Joe and I are two of the 85,000 Americans who signed Vote No! Postcards. We are here today from Wisconsin to help deliver them because we think it’s important to speak out against the constitutional amendment to deny marriage to same-sex couples.
This proposed amendment would deny marriage to same-sex couples – and also seriously threaten civil unions and domestic partnerships.
My husband and I have three children, all of whom were married in Quaker marriage ceremonies. But our gay son is excluded from the rights and responsibilities that the other two have. Writing such discrimination into our national Constitution saddens me because our son is one of millions of wonderful Americans who would have no hope for equal civil rights of marriage. But that’s not the only reason Joe and I are here today. We’re here because:
This amendment is divisive— Why divide Americans with an emotionally charged political issue when we need to come together and face current challenges that affect every American.
This amendment is unnecessary—national law already does what this amendment would do.
This amendment is un-American—our Constitution has always guaranteed liberty and the equal rights of all Americans. It has historically been amended to expand America’s promise—to former slaves, to women, to young people—but never to single out a group of Americans for unequal treatment. This amendment would turn our Constitution on its head by making discrimination part of our country’s charter.
But most of all, this amendment is not what the Congress should be focusing on.
We are facing so many challenges today, as a country and as communities. The energy crisis, a terrible war without an end in sight, health care costs, education—I could go on and on.
So why is the Congress talking about this issue when there are so many issues that American families are grappling with?
I suspect that it has to do with the fact that this is an election year.
Well, I am here today to deliver postcards and to deliver a message: It hurts us that you would discriminate against our son and millions of our good Americans for your own political gain.
President Bush and Senator Frist, the American people want you to stop playing divisive politics and lead on issues that matter.
For more than 40 years, the homosexual activist movement has sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family. The institution of marriage, along with an often weakened and impotent Church, is all that stands in the way of its achievement of every coveted aspiration.
- Dr. James Dobson, Focus on the Family
