SAN DIEGO, California — As the public is drowning in news stories of gay couples kissing and saying "I do," the media coverage has ignored the extremely serious legal fallout of California's new genderless marriage law on everyone else.
Family Leader Foundation Executive Director Peter Knobloch said, "I would give the media coverage a D for DELETE. The media is only covering about 25 percent of the story and either ignoring or deleting the other 75 percent — which is how California's new genderless marriage law now affects all of California citizens and the rest of the country."
"The ultimate irony is that the 'historic' and 'landmark' decision by the California Supreme Court in overturning California's Prop 22, as trumpeted by the media, has given no new government rights and benefits to gay and lesbian couples that they didn't already have," Knobloch continued.
"California already has a domestic-partnership law providing all the state benefits of marriage to same-sex couples, and there's been no change to the nation's Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents all the federal benefits. What really makes the court ruling historic and landmark is how it affects the First Amendment rights of everyone else ."
Where are the headlines and sound-bites that describe the legal fallout on other states' marriage laws? Unlike Massachusetts, California has no residency requirement for marriage. This creates a bastion of legal chaos for other states. Nine attorney generals filed an Amicus brief with the California Supreme Court requesting a stay on their May 15th decision until after voters weighed in on the marriage amendment ballot measure in November. The high court rejected it.
Where are the headlines and sound-bites warning of the inevitable clashes between genderless marriage and the basic First Amendment rights for California's citizens, charitable organizations, schools, churches and businesses?
How does California's new genderless marriage law affect charitable organizations like adoption agencies who believe children should be placed in homes headed by a married mother and father?
What happens to the parochial school teacher who tells her students that marriage is between a man and a woman? Will her comments now be a job performance issue subject to fines or firing?
How will the legalization of same-sex marriage affect admissions, employment, housing, and regulation of clubs at California's religious universities?
Will churches that only perform marriages between a man and a woman be punished by losing access to public facilities or lose their tax-exempt status?
Knobloch concludes, "The legal fallout of California's new genderless marriage law begs for serious questions by journalists. Why aren't they asking the tough questions of this historic and landmark law? Maybe the answer is they don't care or maybe the answer is they won't like what they find — which is that same-sex marriage and the First Amendment are a legal train wreck. First Amendment scholars on both sides of the marriage debate are well aware of this fact — regrettably, the public is not. Whose job is it to tell the people the whole story?"
Family Leader Foundation is the recognized and respected source to whom citizens and policy makers turn for accurate information and research on timely issues focused on strengthening one-woman one-man marriage, supporting traditional families, ensuring parental rights, and advocating religious freedoms and media decency. Family Leader Foundation is supported by contributions from individuals and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. www.familyleader.net .
