g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com June 25, 2011 07:45:00 PM ET
Marriage Equality Foes Speak Out
By Winston Gieseke
As expected, not all of the responses to Friday’s Marriage Equality victory
in New York were positive. In addition to the National Organization for
Marriage’s outspoken reactions, other opponents of LGBT rights were equally
troubled by the state’s late night vote.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan (pictured) and the Catholic Church in New York were
among the most vocal locals in opposition. Dolan, who had very publicly
urged legislators to vote against the bill, said its passage will alter "
radically and forever humanity's historic understanding of marriage" and
released a statement saying:
"We strongly uphold the Catholic Church's clear teaching that we always
treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity, and love.
But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and
one woman in a lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for
the good of those children and the spouses themselves. This definition
cannot change, though we realize that our beliefs about the nature of
marriage will continue to be ridiculed, and that some will even now attempt
to enact government sanctions against churches and religious organizations
that preach these timeless truths."
Another religious leader, Rev. Jason McGuire, executive director of the
evangelical Christian group New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, issued
his own statement, saying: “Despite today’s vote, the people of New York
recognize that marriage provides a strong foundation for a thriving society.
State senators who have chosen to pursue their own agenda or the agenda of
liberal activist groups are ignoring the 62 percent of Americans who believe
marriage is one man, one woman, nothing else.”
The Family Research Council, meanwhile, implied on their blog that
legislators who voted in favor of the measure had been bribed: “Enormous
political coercion has resulted in a profound failure of moral courage in
the New York Senate. A clear majority of the people of New York oppose
counterfeit ‘marriage,’ but Gov. Cuomo and anti-family lawmakers have
shown that their allegiance is to a small but vocal minority seeking to
redefine marriage and family. ... As we go forward there is little doubt
that the ‘incentives’ some taxpayer funded, used to sway votes, especially
Republican ones, will be exposed.”
Mike Macalusco, the head of a group calling itself Citizens for a Decent
Community, labeled gay marriage "a total collapse of morality in New York
State” and said the hard-fought amendments intending to protect religious
institutions were “baloney.”
On the road with a Tea Party bus tour, former House speaker Newt Gingrich
also expressed his dissatisfaction with the vote. “I think we are drifting
towards a terrible muddle which I think is going to be very, very difficult
and painful to work our way out of,” he told Iowa reporters on Saturday. |
|
