In the days since President Obama publicly admitted his support for radically redefining marriage, his boosters in the media — both in print and onscreen — have been vocal in their praise of his political cunning. And while the majority of Americans were taken aback by what appears to be a desperate attempt on the president’s part to draw in donations from supporters of the homosexual agenda, no one was surprised: He essentially put into words a position that he’s clearly held for some time.
The bigger problems with the president’s announcement are the ways his supporters are using it to disperse myriad inaccuracies on same-sex “marriage.”
For example, the cover story in the current issue of Newsweek has a picture of President Obama, captioned with the title: “The First Gay President.” Written by Andrew Sullivan, an advocate of homosexual behavior, the piece is somewhat misleading in the way it frames the public’s view on marriage in this nation.
In fact, to read Sullivan’s article, one would think there is groundswell of support for redefining marriage in this country. Thus, after he contends that “marriage equality is now supported by half of Americans in polls,” he tries to bolster this claim by presenting some numbers on the supposed groundswell of support among Americans of various categories:
Sixty-five percent of Democrats back marriage equality, compared with only 22 percent of Republicans. [And] independents favor [same-sex] marriage by 57 percent — far closer to the Democrats than the GOP . . . Women, too, are more supportive of marriage equality [than they were in elections past]. Catholics? Whatever the bishops say, Catholics are second only to Jews in their support for [same-sex] marriage.
Taken as a whole, Mr. Sullivan’s claims seem specious at best. #more#And the fact that he had to use these various categories of Americans to justify his overarching claim that redefining marriage “is now supported by half of Americans in polls” seems to soundly demonstrate the weakness of his argument.
As a matter of fact, the Alliance Defense Fund, of which I am president, partnered with Public Opinion Surveys to conduct a national, scientific survey which also included 14 focus groups. The results: 62 percent of Americans said they believe “marriage should be defined only as a union between one man and one woman.” And as the citizens of North Carolina recently demonstrated in voting to protect marriage in that state, every time the American people have an opportunity to vote on a measure protecting marriage, they vote in the affirmative.
Therefore, while President Obama’s announcement may charge up the portion of his base to which he hoped to appeal, it does nothing to change the facts of the matter at hand. And those facts say a clear majority of Americans believe marriage should remain what it is and what it always has been, “a union between one man and one woman.”
— Alan Sears, a former federal prosecutor who held various posts in the departments of Justice and Interior during the Reagan Administration, is president and CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance employing a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.