GAY AND LESBIAN FAMILIES

Fast Facts

What the Bible Really Says About Marriage   |   CBO Marriage Report

Senator Orrin Hatch has sponsored or co-sponsored 67 resolutions to amend the U.S. Constitution. This includes 13 different amendments. (Source: Salt Lake Tribune) http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03152004/utah/148020.asp

President George W. Bush has run five campaigns in his political career. He has supported five different amendments to the United States Constitution. (Source: ABC News)

In 1911, an amendment to the U. S. Constitution was introduced to abolish racial intermarriage: Intermarriage between negros or persons of color and Caucasians . . . within the United States . . . is forever prohibited.

In 1911 Rep. Seaborn Roddenberry of Georgia introduced the amendment. In his appeal to congress, Roddenberry stated that, "Intermarriage between whites and blacks is repulsive and averse to every sentiment of pure American spirit. It is abhorrent and repugnant. It is subversive to social peace. It is destructive of moral supremacy, and ultimately this slavery to black beasts will bring this nation to a fatal conflict" (Gilmore, 1975, p.108). Influenced by Roddenberry and others, miscegenation bills were introduced in 1913 in half of the twenty states where this law did not exist.

It wasn't until 1967 that the U.S. Supreme Court (Loving v. Virginia ) ruled all laws banning interracial marriage are unconstitutional.

A 1958 poll found that 96 percent of whites disapproved of marriages between blacks and whites (Deuteronomy 7:3 condemns interracial marriages). In 1959 a judge justified Virginia's ban on interracial marriage by declaring that 'Almighty God ... did not intend for the races to mix.' (Source: Nicholas D. Kristof, in The New York Times Op-Ed column, December 3, 2003.)

The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) reports there are 1,138 rights and benefits from marriage in federal law.

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