Current mood:

contemplative

A message from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas United States Senator
About a month ago, I wrote Senator Hutchison a very polite letter expressing my opinion and firm opposement about the Fedral Marriage Amendment, H.J. Res. 56 & 26. This is the CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT that among many other thing will make same-sex marriage illegal on a constitutional level. She responded with the following lettered opinion:

_______________________________________________________________________
Dear Mr. Rodgers:

Thank you for contacting me reguarding the Federal Marriage Amendment. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.

The Federal Marriage Amendment, H,J, Res. 56 and companion measure S.J. Res. 26, would ammend the Constitution to define marriage in the United States as consisting only of the union of a man and a woman. The Constitution delegates authority to states to write marriage laws, and I generaly oppose the federal government intruding into matters os state authority. On this issue, however, one state's action can have seriousand far-reaching societal and legal implications on other states. Our society and system of laws are structured around the concept of marriage between a man and a woman, and from a states' rights and sovereignty perspective, I do not believe we should require the citizens for all fifty states to recognize same-sex marriages if one state's supream court rules such unions are permissible under state's laws. For this reason, I support the Federal Marriage Amendment.

I also voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law on September 21, 1996, which prohibits any state's marriage law from requiring Texas and other states, as well as the federal government, to recognize same-sex marriages. This law also defines marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman.

I appreciate hearing from you and hope you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
_______________________________________________________________________

Please let me know what you think about this, or if you wish to contact the Senator herself or any other on this issue, you can do this through the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) website at

http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRightsMain.cfm

A note, this is a wonderful website to learn about and where and how you can post your opinion on issues about civil liberties issues. Take care everyone.