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.
back to
top |