The Wisconsin Legislature decides the people of Wisconsin need to actively save marriage and will present the following constitutional amendment for citizens to accept or reject.
"Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state."I will not vote for this measure because the motivation is purely political self interest, rather than a serious attempt to resolve inequalities within the law. Tampering with the constitution should be the last resort of politicians and this is a spineless admission our elected officials want to avoid doing the hard work of seeking acceptable compromise between groups with differing values.
Any truly satisfactory political solution needs to be based on understanding the difference between abnormal and unnatural. Homosexuality is abnormal sexuality because everything we know about the nature of life reveals that sexual behavior is for the purpose of reproduction. Homosexual orientation, while abnormal is not unnatural in that it clearly arises within a subset of the population. The political issue is how we as a society will decide to apply values of right and wrong to our naturally occurring minority populations.
Marriage is an approved union between a man and a woman and the homosexual rights movement is wrong to attempt the redefinition of this historical word. It is important to understand that marriage is a social construction conferred and supported by organizations. The emotional bonds between individuals exist independently of institutional guidelines and while granted rights and expectations can influence feelings it is ultimately mutual agreement that keeps two individuals together.
Marriage should remain marriage, but if we are a society based on the idea that individual rights are the source of just governance, then there needs to be legitimate alternatives to marriage. Achieving valid recognition of the rights of non-married couples will require rewriting existing laws but that is preferable to partisan gamesmanship with our constitution.
