Pro-family leaders defend true marriage against lawsuits in Oklahoma and Michigan
DENVER, CO, February 25, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On “The Simpsons,” Helen Lovejoy frequently cries out, “Won't somebody please think of the children?” In Michigan and Oklahoma, that's exactly what pro-family lawsuits are trying to force judges to do – realize how heterosexual couples benefit the next generation.
This week, Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado in defense of a Tulsa, Oklahoma County Court Clerk. The clerk, Sally Howe, was sued by two women to whom she refused to issue a marriage license.
Federal judge Terence Kern ruled in favor of the women in January. The "Oklahoma Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," he said.
However, Alliance Defending Freedom says children should be raised in homes with parents of different sexes. The state of Oklahoma, which is also appealing Kern's decision, has said the judge's ruling makes marriage about “adult desires,” not the needs of children. The next step for the lawsuit is a hearing on April 17, 2014 before the Circuit Court.
In Michigan, pro-family intellectuals will fight in favor of the state's same-sex “marriage” ban, arguing against a lawsuit brought by lesbians who want to “marry” and adopt each other's respective children.
The author of a much-debated 2012 study on the quality of parenting by heterosexual and homosexual couples, University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus, will be one of the key witnesses. The American Sociological Association was one of many professional groups and sociologists to push back on Regnerus' study, writing in friend-of-the-court briefs last year that “if any conclusion can be reached from Regnerus’s study, it is that family stability is predictive of child well-being.”
Regnerus' study, however, found that the kids of same-sex couples were more than four times as likely to report having been raped. They were also up to 12 times as likely to have been sexually touched by a family member than those from intact heterosexual households, and were more than twice as likely to have contemplated suicide.
They also had a greater chance of being unemployed when compared to children raised by single parents.
A study by Dr. Douglas Allen in 2012 concluded that kids of heterosexual parents do better in school than those raised by homosexual parents, by significant margins. Last year, the Urban Institute foundteenagers in homosexual relationships are 148 percent more likely to be abused in a romantic relationship. The Department of Justice funded the Urban report.
