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Marriage Protection Amendment

By: Max Burns
By: Max Burns
Date: Sept. 30, 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Marriage


MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDMENT -- (House of Representatives - September 30, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 801, proceedings will now resume on the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 106) proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage.

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Mr. BURNS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, we have an obligation to the people of America to settle this debate over whether a handful of political activists are allowed to use the Federal courts to impose their moral view on the unwilling majority of the country.

The overwhelming majority of the people of the 12th Congressional District of Georgia oppose legalized same-sex marriage. They do not want to play semantic games about the issue.

The people in my district and State believe that legal marriage, and the benefits associated with the institution, should be reserved for those whom the benefits were intended, the union of a man and a woman, period.

Georgia has placed a referendum for a State constitutional amendment to that effect on this November's ballot lot. That is how it should be. As a Georgia voter, I will support the amendment with my vote, as will the majority of my State.

The Federal amendment we consider today will allow those State decisions to determine this issue, as they have since our Nation's founding, rather than allowing a small minority to dictate their opinions on an unwilling majority.

We need to speak plainly here today. A vote against this legislation is a vote for legalized same-sex marriage to be forced on an unwilling America. Such a calamity would not just be morally reprehensible to the majority of Americans, it would provide a chilling precedent for undermining our system of self-government. We will pay for inaction on this issue with the loss of government by the people on all issues.

I urge my friends on both sides of the aisle to support the amendment to restore the protections of the Constitution and self rule.

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