News

Log Cabin Applauds Growing Conservative Opposition to Anti-Family Marriage Amendment

First Lady Joins Growing Number of Conservatives and Americans Wanting Focus on Other Issues

May 15, 2006

(Washington, DC) – Log Cabin Republicans applaud conservatives for speaking out against an anti-family marriage amendment, which is scheduled for a Senate vote the week of June 5th. First Lady Laura Bush said on Fox News Sunday that the amendment shouldn't be used as a campaign tool. In recent weeks, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reiterated his opposition to the federal amendment, former Senator John Danforth (R-MO) called the amendment "silly," and Mary Cheney spoke out against it and repeated Vice President Dick Cheney's opposition.

"The First Lady understands what most Americans and a growing number of conservatives understand," said Log Cabin President Patrick Guerriero. "With a global war on terror and American troops in harms way, with reconstruction efforts along the Gulf coast, with a national debate over border security and immigration and a host of other critical issues facing us, writing discrimination into the US Constitution shouldn't be a priority."

A recent poll conducted for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) by Peter D. Hart Research Associates shows that most Americans agree. The poll shows that 49% of Americans think that marriage should continue to be an issue for the states to decide. Only 33% think that an amendment to the Constitution should decide the issue. The same proposed amendment failed in the Senate and House of Representatives last year. "The American people are clearly against this," said Guerriero. "Everyday, more principled conservatives speak out against it. It already failed once. There is no good reason that this issue is before Congress."

Echoing the position of Vice-President Dick Cheney, Mary Cheney told Fox News Sunday that the proposed amendment would write discrimination into the Constitution and is "fundamentally wrong." On NBC's Meet the Press, McCain re-stated his opposition to the federal amendment saying that leaving marriage policy to the states is consistent with the long held GOP and conservative belief in federalism. Danforth's comments were delivered at Log Cabin's recent national dinner in Washington, DC where he called on conservatives to abandon needlessly divisive issues and move back to the political center where most Americans are.

Log Cabin will continue its unprecedented lobbying and grassroots work with Republican members of Congress on this issue in the weeks ahead before the Senate vote on June 5th.