Press Release

Humanists Support Dynamic Role for Marriage

For Immediate Release - Contact: Roy Speckhardt at (202) 238-9088

(Washington, D.C., February 24, 2004) In endorsing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages, President Bush exhibits a disappointingly narrow view of love, commitment, and family. Humanist leaders explain that marriage is a progressive, vital institution.

“The institution of civil marriage is dynamic rather than static,” said Mel Lipman, president of the American Humanist Association, “having progressed dramatically over a relatively brief span of time.”

Since the adoption of our Constitution, race restrictions on marital choice have been eliminated, laws that allowed marriage to be used as a means of subjugating women eliminated, divorce regulations equalized to protect both parties, and government can no longer intrude on sexual intimacy. In just the last generation we have seen an increase of the age at which people marry, and in the rate at which they decide to “unmarry.” Marriages are no longer oppressively arranged but entered into equally through love, choice, and commitment.

Bush’s recommendation would result in the first time since the failed and repealed prohibition amendment that the Constitution was modified in an attempt to control personal behavior and restrict individual liberties. In Bush’s endorsement speech, he cited America’s religious roots as support for his argument and made the outrageous claim that opposite-sex marriage is “honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith.”

Lipman responded, “Many religious groups are supportive of equal rights for same-sex couples. Bush’s proposal to write discrimination into our Constitution on religious grounds is in direct contradiction to the first amendment guarantee of religious liberty. Marriage in the United States is secular, not sacramental.”

AHA executive director Tony Hileman added, “The arguments in favor of a constitutional amendment are on the losing side of human rights and civil liberties. The right of same-sex couples to marry enhances individual liberty and does so at no expense to the common good. Same- and opposite-sex couples in committed relationships should enjoy equal protections and benefits and not be treated separately. Separate is never equal.”

The American Humanist Association is the oldest and largest Humanist organization in the nation. The AHA is dedicated to ensuring a voice for those with a positive nontheistic outlook, based on reason and experience, which embraces all of humanity .

Press Room